UC-N 


SB    577 


PAULINE  FORE  MOFFITT 
LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
GENERAL  LIBRARY,  BERKELEY 


With  the  compliments  of  the 

GEO.  W.  WHEELWRIGHT  PAPER  Co., 

BOSTON,  MASS. 


FROM 

PAPER-MILL  TO 
PRESSROOM 


ANCIENT  PAPER-MAKING 


E  tools  of  the  primitive  paper-maker  consisted  of  a  pulp 
vat  for  the  fibre-laden  water,  a  frame,  or  mold  across  which 
was  stretched  a  mesh  of  closely-spaced  wires,  and  a  removable 
frame  known  as  the  deckle;  hence  the  term  "deckle  edged"  The 
beating  was  done  by  iron  shod  hammers  which  were  raised  and 
released  by  cams  on  a  shaft  turned  by  water  power:  this  machine 
called  a  stamper  is  shown  in  the  foreground  of  this  picture. 


FROM 

PAPER-MILL  TO 
PRESSROOM 


By 
WILLIAM  BOND  WHEELWRIGHT 

Author  of  "How  Paper  is  Made,"  etc. 


$Jrrsa 

GEORGE  BANTA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
MENASHA,  WISCONSIN 

1920 


COPYRIGHTED  1920 

BY 
WILLIAM  BOXD  WHEELRIGHT 


PRINTED  AND   BOUND   BY 

QEORQE   BANTA  PUBLISHING  CO. 

MANUFACTURING  PUBLISHERS 

MENASHA,   WISCONSIN 


TO  MY  FATHER 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  WHEELWRIGHT 

AND  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  HIS  FATHER 

WHO  ENTERED  THE  PAPER  BUSINESS  IN  1834 

THESE  PAGES  ARE 
RESPECTFULLY  INSCRIBED 


919 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter 

INTRODUCTION ix 

I.     Tradition  and  History  of  Paper- Making 1 

II.     Raw  Materials 10 

III.  Future  Fibre  Possibilities 18 

IV.  The  Constituents  of  Paper 24 

V.     The  Constituents  of  Paper 32 

VI.     Paper-Making 41 

VII.     Paper-Making 51 

VHI.     The  Physical  and  Chemical  Aspects  of  Paper 60 

IX.     Appraising  and  Testing  Paper 67 

X.     Pressroom  Difficulties 76 

XI.     The  Paper  Trade 89 

XII.     Importance  of  a  Knowledge  of  Printing 97 

INDEX 101 

NOTE— This  book  is  printed  on  Wheelwright's  "B.P.F"  paper  25x38-70. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

ANCIENT  PAPER-MAKING Frontispiece 

RAGROOM,  PIONEER  MILL,  CRANE  &  Co 23 

RAG  BOILER  ROOM,  CRANE  &  Co 25 

WOOD  GRINDER 30 

WET  MACHINES,  THE  BROWN  Co 33 

CYLINDER  MACHINE  FOR  DRYING  PULP,  THE  BROWN  Co 35 

THE  BEATER-ROOM,  CRANE  &  Co 37 

FOURDRINIER  MACHINES,  CRANE  &  Co 45 

FOURDRINIER  MACHINE,  S.  D.  WARREN  &  Co 50 

CYLINDER  VATS,  MADE  BY  THE  PUSEY  &  JONES  Co 53 

COATING  ROOM,  APPLETON  COATED  PAPER  Co 57 

FINISHING-ROOM,  CRANE  &  Co 58 

SUPERCALENDER  STACKS,  APPLETON  COATED  PAPER  Co 66 


INTRODUCTION 

IN  the  following  pages  I  have  endeavored  to  present  a 
treatise  on    paper   free   from    confusing  technicalities, 
yet  sufficiently  intimate  to  be  of   service  alike  to  the 
manufacturer,   the   salesman,  and  the  consumer    of   paper 
viewing  the  subject  in  a  broad  way  from  the  paper  mill  to 
the  pressroom.    The  manufacturer  and  the  consumer  may 
notice  the  omission  of  some  details,  as  I  have  aimed  to 
touch  mainly  on  such  points  as  are  essential  to  a  good  under- 
standing of  the  work-a-day  problems  of  paper  after  it  reaches 
the   printer. 

I  am  convinced  that  in  many  cases  the  problems  of  the 
pressroom  are  too  slightly  understood  by  the  "paperman," 
while  the  technicalities  of  paper-making  are  only  too  vaguely' 
comprehended  by  the  printer.  I  also  feel  that  both  should 
have  at  least  an  acquaintance  with  the  history  and  progress 
of  paper-making. 

WILLIAM  BOND  WHEELWRIGHT. 

Appleton,  Wisconsin, 
January,  1920. 


CHAPTER  ONE 

THE  TRADITION  AND  HISTORY. OF  PAPER-MAKING 

IT  would  be  difficult  to  single  out  among  the  diversified 
objects  of  human  investigation,"  wrote  John  Murray 
in  his  remarks  on  "Modern  Paper"  (published  in 
1829),  "a  question  more  curious  or  interesting  than  the 
medium  which  bears  the  symbols  that  register  the  cir- 
cumstances and  events  of  past  ages.  .  .  .  It  is  through 
such  wonderful  media  that  we  are  introduced  into  the  multi- 
tudinous throng  of  a  world's  tenantry,  and  from  their  in- 
scription learn  what  they  thought,  and  said  and  did.  ...  In 
deciphering  these  transcriptions  of  ideas  and  memorials  of 
humanity  we  virtually  converse  with  minds  long  since 
numbered  with  those  who  people  the  world  of  spirits;  and 
even  the  mummy  from  his  cerements  in  his  sycamore  coffin, 
recovered  from  the  vaults  of  eternal  pyramids,  talks  with  us 
by  virtue  of  the  roll  of  papyrus  which  he  holds  in  his  hand. 

From  this  substance  of  Egyptian  origin  is  derived  the 
name  of  its  modern  successor — paper.  Paper,  which  in 
convenience  and  varied  utility  is  as  much  in  advance  of  its 
forerunner  as  papyrus  was  in  advance  of  brick,  stone,  lead, 
copper,  brass,  leaves,  bark,  wood  and  skins,  the  successive 
media  for  the  transcription  of  human  thought. 

The  exact  date  of  the  origin  of  paper-making  has  prob- 
ably yet  to  be  discovered,  though  the  researches  of  Dr.  Aurel 
Stein  and  others  have  traced  its  antiquity  back  into  the 
second  century,  B.  C.  (see  Encyclopaedia  Britannica). 

According  to  R.  W.  Sindall  ("The  Manufacture  of 
Paper,"  1908),  the  earliest  reference  to  the  manufacture  of 
paper  is  to  be  found  in  the  Chinese  Encyclopaedia,  wherein  it  s 
stated  that  Ts'ai-Lun,  a  native  of  Kuei-yang,  entered  the 
service  of  the  Emperor  Ho-Ti  in  A.  D.  75,  and,  devoting  his 
leisure  hours  to  study,  suggested  the  use  of  silk  and  ink  as  a 

(D 


2  TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING 

substitute  for  the  bamboo  tablet  and  stylus.  Subsequently 
he  succeeded  in  making  paper  from  bark,  tow,  old  linen  and 
fish-nets  (A.  D.  105). 

The  art  thus  originated  and  nurtured  by  the  Chinese 
remained  to  be  transmitted  to  Europe  by  the  Arabs  after 
their  conquest  of  Samarkand  in  A.  D.  751. 

The  first  centers  of  the  industry  founded  in  the  eleventh 
century  were  in  Spain,  at  Toledo,  Valencia  and  Xativa. 
From  Spain  the  craftsmen  migrated  to  Sicily,  Italy,  France 
and  the  Netherlands. 

A  mill  was  established  at  Hainault,  France,  as  early  as 
1190. 

The  oldest-known  document  on  cotton  paper  is  a  deed  of 
King  Roger  of  Sicily,  dated  1102.  It  is  probable  that  the 
famous  mills  of  Fabriano  sprang  from  Sicilian  sources;  their 
establishment  was  followed  in  1360  by  a  mill  in  Padua,  and 
later  in  Treviso,  Bologna,  Palma,  Milan  and  Venice,  while 
the  first  paper-mill  of  Germany  was  that  of  Ulman  Stromer  at 
Mainz  in  1320. 

A  most  interesting  account  of  this  period  of  paper-making 
is  given  as  follows  by  Harold  Bay  ley  in  his  volume,  "A  New 
Light  on  the  Renaissance:" 

"In  the  Dark  Ages  there  existed  in  the  south  of  France  a 
premature  civilization  far  in  advance  of  that  of  the  rest  of 
Europe.  Among  the  arts  and  industries  that  nourished  in 
Provence  and  the  surrounding  districts,  paper-making  was 
one  of  the  foremost.  Not  only  was  this  district  the  cradle  of 
European  paper-making,  but  for  many  centuries  it  remained 
the  center  of  this  industry. 

"The  freedom  and  prosperity  of  Provence  attracted  large 
numbers  of  persecuted  Jews  and  heretics,  who  took  refuge 
there,  and  by  their  industry  and  intellect  augmented  the 
power  and  influence  of  the  country.  So  deeply,  indeed,  did 
heresy  enter  into  the  politics  of  Provence,  that  in  1209  the 
Church  of  Rome  considered  it  necessary  to  launch  a  crusade 
against  the  infected  district. 


TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING  3 

"During  a  period  of  twenty  years  the  heretical  inhabi- 
tants were  either  extirpated  or  driven  into  perpetual  exile. 
Those  who  escaped  carried  with  them  a.  passionate  affection 
for  their  destroyed  fatherland,  and  an  undying  hatred  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

"It  will  be  shown  that  from  the  appearance  of  the  first 
water-mark  in  1282  these  mysterious  marks  are,  speaking 
broadly,  the  traditional  emblems  of  Provence. 

"From  the  fact  that  fundamentally  the  same  designs  were 
employed  all  over  Europe,  we  can  deduce  the  inference  that 
Provencal  refugees  carried  their  art  throughout  Europe, 
just  in  the  same  way  as  at  a  later  period  and  under  somewhat 
similar  circumstances  Huguenots  carried  new  industries  into 
strange  countries.  It  will  also  be  shown  that  the  same  code 
which  unlocks  many  of  the  obscurities  of  paper-marks 
elucidates  the  problems  of  printers'  marks,  and  evidence 
will  be  brought  forward  that  paper-makers  and  printers  were 
originally  in  close  touch  with  each  other,  held  similar  views, 
and  were  associated  in  identical  aims." 

Gradually  the  secrets  of  the  craft  pursued  their  north- 
ward trail  into  the  Netherlands.  Saardam,  in  the  Duchy  of 
Holland,  became  in  the  eighteenth  century  an  important 
center,  employing,  it  is  said,  one  thousand  persons. 

In  England,  which  for  many  years  imported  all  its  paper, 
the  first  mill  was  erected  about  1498,  as  is  attested  by  an 
entry  for  that  year  in  the  privy-purse  expenses  of  King  Henry 
VII.  Further  corroboration  is  also  to  be  found  in  the 
following  quaint  verse  from  Wynken  de  Worde's  edition  of 
"De  Proprietatibus  Rerum": 

And  John  Tate  the  younger  Joye  mote  he  broke, 

Which  late  hathe  in  England  doo  make  this  paper  thynne 

That  now  in  our  Englyshe  this  book  is  written  inne. 

England,  however,  achieved  no  reputation  for  fine  papers 
until  the  establishment  of  the  famous  James  Whatman,  in 
1760. 


4  TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING 

In  the  meantime,  the  trade  had  taken  root  in  our  own 
country  when,  in  1690,  William  Rittenhouse  started  the  first 
American  mill  on  the  Wissahickon  river  at  Roxborough, 
near  Philadelphia,  and  thirty  years  later  New  England's 
first  mill  was  established  by  David  Hinchman  at  Milton, 
Massachusetts . 

The  migratory  characteristics  of  the  trade  were  made 
possible  by  the  simplicity  of  the  machinery  which  was 
required  in  these  times.  Pictures  of  early  mills  depict  a 
mortar  and  pestle  in  which  to  macerate  the  rags  to  pulp,  a 
small  vat  for  the  paper  stuff,  a  mold  on  which  the  paper  was 
formed,  and  a  screw  press  with  which  to  squeeze  out  the 
water  from  the  new-formed  sheets. 

Mechanical  improvements  came  with  painful  slowness, 
and  no  doubt  each  small  advance  was  a  jealously  guarded 
secret. 

The  mortar  and  pestle  were  succeeded  by  a  machine 
mechanically  imitating  the  handwork  of  beating  the  rags  to 
pulp.  This  was  called  a  stamper.  The  old  mortar  remained, 
but  the  beating  was  done  by  iron-shod  hammers,  which  were 
raised  and  released  by  cams  on  a  shaft  turned  by  water- 
power.  Note  the  stamper  in  the  foreground  of  the  picture  of 
Ancient  Paper-making  on  page  II. 

The  Dutch  improved  upon  this  device  by  the  invention  of 
the  Holland  beating  engine  about  1770,  which  in  its  essen- 
tials is  practically  the  same  thing  to-day  on  a  much  larger 
scale. 

Until  the  year  1798  there  had  been  no  further  advance 
in  mechanical  inventions  for  paper-making,  but  let  us  pause 
a  moment  for  a  consideration  of  the  paper  itself. 

The  early  raw  material  consisted  solely  of  cotton  and 
linen  rags,  and  there  was  very  little  variety  of  output.  Until 
1750  all  the  paper  was  made  on  molds,  the  seats  of  which 
were  made  by  fine  parallel  wires  supported  by  heavier  wires, 
which  ran  at  right  angles  to  them.  Consequently  all  the 
paper  was  what  is  called  "laid."  In  1750,  at  the  instance  of 
the  famous  Printer  Baskerville,  a  mold  was  made  with  a 


TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING  5 

woven-wire  seat,  and  the  first  "wove"  paper  was  used  in  his 
famous  Edition  of  Virgil. 

The  characteristics  of  the  earlier  paper  are  well  summed 
up  by  Mr.  De  Vinne  in  an  article  on  woodcut  printing  which 
appeared  in  Volume  XIX,  No.  6,  of  Scribner's  Magazine,  a 
reading  of  which  impresses  one  with  the  limitations  of  ancient 
paper-making  as  contrasted  with  the  complexity  of  modern 
paper-making,  and  all  the  study  which  its  variations  impose 
upon  the  modern  printer  who  seeks  proficiency. 

"Much  of  the  paper  made  in  the  sixteenth  century,"  he 
says,  "was  unsuitable  for  woodcuts.  By  far  the  larger 
portion  was  made  of  linen  stock,  hard  and  rough  as  to  sur- 
face, laid,  or  showing  the  marks  of  the  wires  upon  which  the 
pulp  had  been  crushed,  or  ragged  edges,  unsized  and  very 
sensitive  to  dampness,  uneven  in  thickness,  usually  thin  in 
the  center  and  thick  at  the  edges.  .  .  . 

"The  paper  selected  was,  in  most  cases,  too  rough  and 
hard  to  be  forcibly  impressed  against  the  delicate  lines  of 
fine  woodcuts.  It  was  the  usage  everywhere  to  soften  the 
paper  by  a  careful  dampening. 

"When  the  paper  was  sized  it  was  more  weakened  by 
this  dampening,  which  really  lightened  the  labor  of  the 
pressman.  But  unsized  paper  was  only  about  half  the  price 
of  sized,  and  the  inducement  to  use  it  was  great.  The  un- 
sized paper  was  dampened  with  difficulty,  it  greedily  sucked 
up  water,  and  when  fully  wet  became  flabby  and  unmanage- 
able. Under  searching  pressure  of  the  woolen  blanket  which 
was  always  put  between  the  paper  to  be  printed  and  the 
printing  surface,  this  flabby  paper  was  forced  around  the 
finer  lines  of  the  cut,  making  them  much  thicker  than  was 
intended." 

Let  those  whose  shallowness  leads  them  to  regard  modern 
paper-making  as  an  abortion  of  a  once  noble  art  take  thought ! 

The  transition  from  the  old  ways  of  paper-making  to 
modern  processes  was  sudden.  The  century  which  gave 


6  TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING 

them  to  us  stands  out  in  radiance  against  the  dark  ages  of 
heavy  toil  at  the  vat  and  press. 

First  came  the  mechanic  whose  genius  caused  tons  to  be 
produced  in  the  time  that  pounds  were  made  of  yore.  Next 
came  the  chemist  who  developed  unthought-of  raw  mate- 
rials to  supply  the  ever-growing  demands  of  "papivorous" 
civilization,  until  it  has  been  said  with  so  much  truth  that 
ours  is  the  paper  age. 

In  1798  an  obscure  French  workman,  Louis  Robert,  of 
Essonne,  announced  that  he  "had  discovered  a  way  to  make, 
with  one  man,  and  without  fire,  by  means  of  machines, 
sheets  of  paper  of  a  very  large  size,  even  twelve  feet  wide  and 
fifty  feet  long." 

Times  were  hard  on  the  continent,  yet  the  Government  of 
France,  recognizing  the  importance  of  the  invention,  awarded 
Robert  eight  thousand  francs  and  a  patent  for  fifteen  years. 
Furthermore,  permission  was  given  to  carry  over  the  small 
working  model  to  England,  with  the  hope  of  interesting 
British  capital. 

A  successful  attempt  to  make  paper  on  Robert's  machine 
having  been  made  in  the  mill  of  Francois  Didot,  in  France, 
Leger  Didot  purchased  the  patent  and,  accompanied  by  an 
Englishman  of  the  appropriate  name  of  John  Gamble,  pro- 
ceeded to  England  and  employed  Mr.  Bryan  Donkin  to 
construct  a  machine. 

Being  in  need  of  funds,  they  interested  two  wealthy 
London  stationers,  Messrs.  Henry  and  -Sealy  Fourdrinier,  in 
their  proposition,  and  in  1804  the  first  successful  machine 
was  started  at  Frogmore.  Much  credit  is  due  Mr.  Donkin,  by 
whose  ingenuity  the  mechanical  difficulites  were  mastered, 
but  the  Fourdriniers,  for  whom  the  machine  was  named,  are 
no  less  entitled  to  the  honor,  as  their  persistent  faith  in  the 
machine  finally  led  them  into  bankruptcy. 

After  having  expended  sixty  thousand  pounds  and  being 
reduced  to  penury,  they  finally  petitioned  Parliament  for 
compensation  for  their  losses.  Their  labors  were  fortu- 


TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING  7 

nately  appreciated,  and  a  sum  of  seven  thousand  pounds  was 
voted  them. 

Surely  all  these  early  pioneers  deserve  a  place  in  the  hall 
of  fame  beside  that  of  Gutenberg. 

In  1812  the  type  of  machine  known  as  "cylinder"  was 
invented  by  John  Dickinson,  whose  name  is  still  associated 
with  paper-making,  and  so  different  is  the  machine  in  prin- 
ciple that  Dickinson's  name  should  also  be  placed  along- 
side of  Robert's  as  a  benefactor  to  mankind.  Neither  of 
these  machines  had  any  means  for  drying  paper,  conse- 
quently their  production  was  decidedly  limited.  This  lack 
was  supplied  by  the  invention  of  driers  by  T.  B.  Crompton 
in  1821,  who  later  took  out  a  patent  for  slitter-knives.-  Suc- 
tion boxes  were  contributed  by  the  ingenuity  of  M.  Canson, 
a  Frenchman,  in  1826.  John  Wilks,  an  Englishman,  pro- 
duced the  first  dandy  roll  in  1830,  while  Thomas  Barratt 
conceived  the  idea  of  making  water-marks  by  means  of  this 
roll. 

And  so,  one  after  another,  various  useful  additions  came 
into  existence,  until  we  have  the  modern  paper-machine, 
which  differs  mainly  in  width,  length  and  productive  power 
from  the  machines  of  the  thirties. 

In  the  meantime,  researches  for  new  paper-making  mate- 
rials had  been  in  progress.  As  early  as  1719,  Reamur,  ob- 
serving how  wasps  made  their  nests  from  wood,  threw  out 
the  hint  to  paper-makers,  but  for  over  a  century  there  was  no 
important  result. 

In  1727,  Dr.  Brueckmann,  a  German  naturalist,  published 
a  work  on  stones,  four  copies  of  which  are  said  to  have 
been  printed  on  paper  made  with  asbestos. 

In  1751  M.  Guettard  in  France  published  his  experi- 
ments and  showed  samples  of  paper  made  from  bark,  leaves 
and  wood;  while  in  1765  Jacob  Christian  Schaffers,  of  Ratis- 
bon,  published  a  volume,  a  copy  of  which  exists  in  the  Smith- 
sonian Library,  upon  the  different  sorts  of  paper  he  could 
make  without  rags.  * 

*A  copy  of  the  second  edition  of  this  work  is  in  the  Library  of  the 
University  of  Michigan  at  Ann  Arbor. 


8  TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING 

Matthias  Koops  in  1801  printed  some  account  of  his 
patents  for  utilizing  waste  papers,  straw  and  wood.  This 
volume,  printed  on  straw  paper,  with  one  signature  on 
paper  claimed  to  be  made  of  wood,  is  well  worth  reading,  and 
is  to  be  found  both  in  the  Boston  Public  Library  and  in  the 
Harvard  College  Library,  and  quite  likely  elsewhere. 

These  experiments  are  only  interesting  as  forerunners. 
In  their  own  time  they  came  to  naught.  Not  until  1840  was 
ground  wood-pulp  invented  by  Keller. 

The  production  of  cellulose  from  straw  and  esparto  by 
the  soda  process  was  discovered  by  Routledge,  an  English- 
man, in  1860,  while  the  first  patents  for  making  wood  soda 
pulp  were  those  of  Watt  and  Burgess  in  1854. 

To  an  American  belongs  the  credit  for  the  important 
invention  of  the  sulphite  process,  Benjamin  C.  Tilghmann, 
of  Manayunk,  Pennsylvania,  having  taken  out  the  first 
patents  in  1866. 

Although  excellent  fiber  was  obtained,  the  engineering 
difficulties  proved  so  serious  that  experiments  were  tem- 
porarily abandoned  in  the  United  States.  But  the  process  was 
afterward  put  upon  a  successful  commercial  basis  by  Fry  and 
Ekman,  at  Berzwik,  Sweden,  in  1870.  Americans  soon  took 
up  the  problem  with  renewed  energy,  and  the  late  Charles 
S.  Wheelwright,  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  after  a  visit  to 
Sweden  in  1882  on  which  he  obtained  the  rights  to  the  Ekman 
patents,  introduced  the  process  at  the  plant  of  the  Richmond 
Paper  Company,  in  Providence,  and  while  a  commercial 
success  was  not  realized,  it  was  an  important  step  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  industry,  and  not  many  years  passed  be- 
fore the  United  States  gained  a  leading  position  in  the  pro- 
duction of  wood-pulps.* 

Thus  in  less  than  ninety  years,  from  Robert's  invention 
of  1798  to  the  early  eighties,  the  world  witnessed  a  complete 
revolution  of  the  paper  industry,  which  had  struggled  along 
in  the  same  old  rut  for  some  two  thousand  years. 

*  See  Little  &  Griffin,  "The  Chemistry  of  Paper-making." 


TRADITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PAPER-MAKING  9 

To-day  the  United  States  leads  the  world  in  the  pro- 
duction of  paper.  According  to  the  census  of  1909,  we  pro- 
duced 4,216,708  tons,  valued  at  $232,741,049,  an  amount 
which  exceeds  in  tonnage  the  combined  production  of  Eng- 
land, Germany,  France,  Austria  and  Italy. 

Well  may  we  be  proud  of  this  great  industry,  which  after 
all  is  largely  the  reflection  of  a  nation's  intelligence  and  cul- 
ture, and  commercial  activity. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

RAW    MATERIALS 

PAPER  has  been  defined  as  "an  aqueous  deposit  of 
cellulose,"  and  while  this  is  incomplete  as  a  catalogue 
of  the  materials  composing  a  sheet  of  modern  paper,  it 
is  an  excellent  epitome  of  the  foundation  of  paper- 
making.  Minute  cellulose  fibers,  derivatives  of  various  raw 
materials,  are  deposited  upon  a  wire  cloth  by  the  passage  of 
a  volume  of  water  in  which  they  have  been  suspended. 
The  pulpy  film  thus  formed  becomes  a  sheet  of  paper,  after 
the  expulsion  and  evaporation  of  the  water  which  served  as 
a  medium  for  their  deposit. 

The  minute  fibers  composing  this  hypothetical  sheet  of 
paper  may  have  been  isolated  from  one  of  several  sources  of 
raw  materials  in  present  commercial  use,  or  the  sheet  may 
be  composed  of  a  mixture  of  different  fibers,  all  more  or  less 
pure  cellulose,  in  accordance  with  the  preliminary  treatment 
each  has  undergone. 

The  principal  sources  from  which  American  paper  fibers 
are  derived  are  cotton  and  linen  rags,  hemp,  jute,  wood, 
straw;  and  waste  papers. 

Previous  to  the  year  1840,  the  sources  were  limited  to 
rags.  These  are  almost  wholly  composed  of  pure  cellulose 
fibers,  which  give  up  their  non-cellulose  concomitants  with 
slight  resistance.  The  more  severe  chemical  treatments 
necessary  for  the  isolation  of  cellulose  fibers,  from  wood,  for 
example,  half  of  which  is  non-cellulose  in  structure,  were  un- 
known to  early  paper-makers,  and  only  became  possible  after 
the  discovery  of  bleaching-powder  by  Tennant,  and  the  manu- 
facture of  soda  by  Le  Blanc. 

Although  experiments  in  search  of  suitable  substitutes 
for  rags  began  to  be  made  in  the  eighteenth  century,  it  was 

Note.— Statistics  are  taken  from  U.S.  Reports  for  1909.  Subsequent 
reports  are  obtainable  from  the  Director  of  the  Census,  Washington,  D.C. 

(10) 


RAW  MATERIALS  11 

Keller's  invention  of  ground  wood  in  1840,  Routledge's  work 
on  esparto  grass  and  wood  with  a  soda  process  in  1854,  and 
our  own  fellow  countryman  Tilghmann's  patent  of  the  sul- 
phite process  in  1866,  from  which  we  may  date  the  beginnings 
of  the  now  extensive  use  of  materials  other  than  cotton  and 
linen  wastes. 

The  accompanying  table,  taken  from  the  United  States 
Statistics  of  Manufacture  for  1909,  gives  an  illuminating 
indication  of  the  rapid  growth  of  our  paper  industry,  and 
also  shows  the  remarkable  increase  in  the  use  of  wood  cellu- 
loses. 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  percentage  of  increase  in  the 
use  of  wood-pulp  of  all  kinds  for  the  decade  1899-1909  was 
111.6,  and  of  rags,  50.  Approximately  four  and  one-quarter 
millions  tons  of  paper  were  produced  in  1909,  for  which  the 
fibers  used  figured  in  the  following  proportions : 

Per  Cent. 

Wood-pulp 61.6 

Old  and  waste  papers 21.4 

Rags 7.8 

Straw 6.6 

Manila  (rope) 2.6 

Of  the  total  amount  of  wood  fibers,  the  various  propor- 
tions were  approximately  as  follows: 

Per  Cent. 

Ground  wood 47 

Sulphite  pulp 42 

Soda  pulp 11 

A  further  investigation  as  to  the  species  of  woods  used 
shows  that,  while  spruce  is  still  the  most  important,  con- 
tributing nearly  60  per  cent,  other  woods  are  being  increas- 
ingly used. 

Another  noteworthy  fact  is  the  mighty  increase  in  imports 
of  wood-pulps,  .which  jumped  from  33,319  tons  in  1899  to 
307,122  tons  in  1909,  an  amount  equal  to  12  per  cent  of  all 
that  is  used  in  the  United  States. 


RAW  MATERIALS 


1909 

1904 

1899 

MATERIALS 

Total  cost          .      ... 

$165,442,341 

$111  251,478 

$70  530  236 

Pulpwood,  cost  

$33,772,475 

$20,800,871 

$9  837  516 

Wood  pulp,  purchased: 
Tons 

1  241  914 

877  702 

644  006 

Cost   . 

$43  861  357 

$27,633  164 

$18  369  464 

Ground  — 
Tons  j    . 

452,849 

317,286 

261  962 

Cost  

$9,487,508 

$5,754,259 

$4  361,211 

Soda  fiber  — 
Tons 

154  626 

120  978 

94  042 

Cost  

$6,862,864 

$5,047,105 

$3,430,809 

Sulphite  fiber- 
Tons 

626  029 

433,160 

273,194 

Cost  .... 

$27  184,726 

$16,567,122 

$10,112,189 

Other  chemical  fiber  — 
Tons  

8,410 

6,278 

14,808 

Cost  

$326,259 

$264,678 

$465,255 

Rags,     including     cotton,     flax 
waste  and  sweepings: 
Tons 

357  470 

294,552 

234,514 

Cost   . 

$10  721  559 

$8,864,607 

$6,595,427 

Old  and  waste  paper: 
Tons  

983,882 

588  543 

356,193 

Cost  

$13,691,120 

$7,430,335 

$4,869,409 

Manila    stock,    including    jute 
bagging,  rope,  waste,  threads, 
etc.: 
Tons  . 

117  080 

107,029 

99,301 

Cost  

$3,560,033 

$2,502,332 

$2,437,256 

Straw: 
Tons  

303,137 

304,585 

367,305 

Cost 

$1  460  282 

$1,502,886 

$1,395,659 

All  other  materials  cost  .  .  . 

$58  375  515 

$42,517,283 

$27,025,505 

PRODUCTS 

Total  value  

$267,656  964 

$188,715,189 

$127,326,162 

Newspaper: 
In  rolls  for  printing  — 
Tons  

1,091,017 

840,802 

454,572 

Value  

$42,807,064 

$32,783,308 

$15,754,992 

In  sheets  for  printing  — 
Tons 

84  537 

72,020 

114,640 

Value  .  .  . 

$4  048,496 

$3,143,152 

$4,336,882 

Book  paper: 
Book- 
Tons 

575  616 

434,500 

282,093 

Value  

$42,846,674 

$31,156,728 

$19,466,804 

Table  from  United  States  Statistics  of  Manufacture  for  1909,  Showing  Rapid  Growth  of  Paper 
Industry. 


RAW  MATERIALS 


13 


1909 

1904 

1899 

Book  paper  —  Continued 
Coated— 
Tons  

95,213 

(2) 

(2) 

Value 

$9  413  961 

(2) 

(2) 

Plate,    lithograph,    map, 
woodcut,  etc.  — 
Tons 

6,498 

19,837 

22,366 

Value 

$555,352 

$1,458,343 

$2,018,958 

Cover- 
Tons                     

17,578 

22,150 

18,749 

Value    

$1,982,853 

$2,023,986 

$1,665,376 

Cardboard,   bristol  board,  card 
middles,  tickets,  etc.  — 
Tons  

51,449 

39,060 

28,494 

Value  

$3,352,151 

$2,764,444 

$1,719,813 

Fine    paper  : 
Writing  — 
Tons 

169  125 

131,934 

90,204 

Value 

$24  966  102 

$19,321,045 

$12,222,870 

All  other- 
Tons 

29  088 

14,898 

22,503 

Value      .          ... 

$4  110  536 

$2,928,125 

$3,673,104 

Wrapping  paper: 
Manila   (rope,  jute,  tag, 
etc.)— 
Tons  

73731 

86,826 

89,419 

Value  

$6  989  436 

$6,136,080 

$5,929,764 

Heavy     (mill     wrappers, 
etc.)— 
Tons 

108  561 

96,992 

82,875 

Value 

$4  380  794 

$4  035  588 

$4,143,240 

Straw  — 
Tons 

32  988 

54,232 

91,794 

Value  

$870  419 

$1,389,348 

$2,027,518 

Bogus  or  wood  manila,  all 
grades  — 
Tons  

367  932 

228,371 

203,826 

Value  

$19  777  707 

$10,099,772 

$9,148,677 

All  other- 
Tons  

179  855 

177,870 

67,338 

Value  

$10  202  035 

$8,774,804 

$3,293,174 

Boards: 
Wood  pulp  — 
Tons 

71  036 

60,863 

44,187 

Value.  .  .  . 

$2  639  496 

$2,347,250 

$1,406,130 

Straw- 
Tons  

171  789 

167,278 

157,534 

Value  

$3  750  851 

$4,367,560 

$3,187,342 

News- 
Tons  

74  606 

38,560 

32,119 

Value  

$2,215,469 

$1,174,216 

$930,531 

Table  from  United  States  Statistics  of  Manufacture  for  1909,  Showing  Rapid  Growth  of  Paper 
Industry. 


14 


RAW  MATERIALS 


1909 

1904 

1899 

All  other- 
Tons 

514,208 

253,950 

131,777 

Value  

$17,539,768 

$9,070,531 

$4,829,316 

Other  paper  products  : 
Tissues  — 
Tons 

77,745 

43,925 

28,406 

Value 

$8,553,654 

$5,056,438 

$3,486,652 

Blotting  — 
Tons  .  . 

9,577 

8,702 

4,351 

Value  

$1,186,180 

$1,046,790 

$580,750 

Building  roofing,   asbestos, 
and  sheathing  — 
Tons  
Value  

225,824 
$9,251,368 

145,024 

$4,845,628 

96,915 
$3,025,967 

Hanging  — 
Tons. 

92,158 

62,606 

54,330 

Value   . 

$4,431,514 

$3,013,464 

$2,265,345 

Miscellaneous  — 
Tons  .  . 

96,577 

106,296 

49,101 

Value  

$6,869,169 

$6,729,820 

$2,795,841 

Wood  pulp  made  for  sale  or  for 
consumption    in    mills    other 
than  where  produced: 
Ground  — 
Tons. 

,310,747 

273,400 

280,052 

Value. 

$5,649,466 

$4,323,495 

$4,433,699 

Soda  fiber  — 
Tons  

155,844 

130,366 

99,014 

Value  

$6,572.152 

$5,159,615 

$3,612,602 

Sulphite  fiber  — 
Tons 

444,255 

376,940 

271,585 

Value 

$17,955,748 

$13,661,464 

$10,451,400 

All  other  products,  value 

$4,738,549 

$1,924,195 

$919,415 

WOOD  PULP 

Quantity    produced     (including 
that  used  in  mills  where  manu- 
factured), total  tons  

2,495  523 

1,921,768 

179  535 

Ground,  tons 

1  179  266 

968  976 

586  374 

Soda  fiber,  tons 

298  626 

196  770 

177  124 

Sulphite  fiber,  tons  

EQUIPMENT 

Paper  machines: 
Total  number  ...    . 

1,017,631 
1  480 

756,022 
1  369 

416,037 
1  232 

Capacity,  yearly,  tons. 
Fourdrinier  — 
Number    . 

5,293,397 
804 

3,857,903 
752 

2,782,219 
663 

Capacity  per  24  hours, 
tons  

10,508 

8,569 

f3) 

Table  from  United  States  Statistics  of  Manufacture  for  1909,  Showing  Rapid  Growth  of  Paper 
Industry. 


RAW  MATERIALS 


15 


1909 

1904 

1899 

Cylinder  — 
Number   

676 

617 

569 

Capacity  per  24  hours, 
tons         

6,316 

4,740 

(3) 

Pulp: 
Grinders,  number  
Digesters,  total  number  .... 
Sulphite  fiber,  number  . 
Soda  fiber,  number  .... 
Capacity,    yearly,    tons    of 
DU!D 

1,435 
542 
348 
194 

3,405,621 

1,362 
517 
309 
208 

2,644,753 

1,168 
426 

(2) 
(2) 

1  536,431 

Ground,  tons  

1,809,685 

1,515,088 

(2) 

Sulphite  tons 

1,250,983 

885,092 

(2) 

Soda,  tons  

344,953 

244,573 

(2) 

The  comparative  statement  follows: 


QUANTITY,  IN  CORDS,  OF  PULPWOOD  CONSUMED 


1911 

1910 

1909 

1908 

Total    

4,328,052 

4,094,306 

4,001,607 

3,346,953 

Spruce,  domestic  
Spruce,  imported  
Hemlock  

1,612,355 
903,375 
616,663 

1,473,542 
902,407 
610,478 

1,653,249 
768,332 
559,657 

1,487,356 
672,483 
569,173 

Poplar,  domestic  

333,929 

315,717 

302,876 

279,564 

Poplar,  imported  

34,295 

45,359 

25,622 

22,653 

Balsam  fir  

191,779 

132,362 

(1)  95,366 

(1)  45,309 

Pine  

124,019 

105,882 

90,885 

84,189 

Beech  

44,320 

44,265 

'31,390 

(2) 

Maple  

36,979 

42,621 

(2) 

(2) 

White  fir  
Cottonwood 

36,493 
25,043 

30,845 
31,099 

37,176 
36,898 

(2) 
45,679 

All  other 

88,268 

97,092 

151,179 

140,547 

Slabwood,  etc  

280,534 

262,637 

248,977 

(3) 

(1)  Balsam.  (2)  Included  in  "All  other." 

(3)  Included  with  other  wood  by  species. 

The  high  point  of  importation  of  chemical  wood-pulp  was 
reached  in  1914,  when  approximately  3,600,000  tons  came  in 
from  Europe  and  92,000  from  Canada.  In  January  1916 
owing  to  the  war,  imports  for  the  month  from  Europe 
dropped  from  an  average  of  30,694  tons  to  12,985  tons,  while 
Canadian  pulp  increased  from  an  average  of  7,654  to  an 
actual  importation  for  the  month  of  28,833  tons. 


16  RAW  MATERIALS 

Although  the  use  of  wood  now  so  heavily  overshadows 
that  of  rags  that  it  almost  seems  as  though  the  latter  were 
being  slowly  abandoned,  this  is  of  course  only  relatively 
true,  their  consumption  being  actually  greater  than  ever. 
The  mere  cost  of  the  rags  in  1909  was  slightly  in  excess  of  the 
total  value  of  all  paper  products  recorded  in  the  United 
States  Census  for  1850,  a  circumstance  which  leads  us  to 
wonder  at  the  timely  discoveries  which  made  wood  cellulose 
available. 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  to  some  extent  paper  history 
is  already  beginning  to  repeat  itself.  The  visible  supplies 
of  wood  are  markedly  less,  as  evidenced  by  their  increasing 
costs,  and  we  are  forced  to  a  much  more  active  attitude  than 
one  of  mere  speculation  as  to  what  new  sources  may  become 
available  to  supply  our  demand  for  paper,  which  has  lately 
been  increasing  in  the  value  of  the  annual  products  by  almost 
11  per  cent. 

In  the  decade  from  1899  to  1909  shown  by  government 
statistics,  book-paper  advanced  104  per  cent  in  quantity,  but 
120  per  cent  in  value;  writing-paper,  88  per  cent  in  quantity, 
but  104  per  cent  in  value;  wrapping-paper,  43  per  cent  in 
quantity  and  72  per  cent  in  value.  It  is  true  that  rising  wages 
account  in  part  for  these  changes  in  value,  but  above  and 
behind  all  this  stands  the  inexorable  law  of  supply  and 
demand. 

The  discrepancies  between  the  percentages  of  increase 
in  production  and  value  serve  to  emphasize  the  increasing 
difficulties  in  obtaining  raw  material.  That  spruce  wood  is 
being  consumed  in  this  country  faster  than  it  is  grown,  is 
indicated  by  the  recourse  to  less-favored  species,  as  well  as 
by  the  steadily  increasing  imports,  both  of  pulpwood  and 
wood-pulp.  This  situation  emphasises  the  great  importance 
of  conserving  waste  papers,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  21.4  per 
cent  of  the  fiber  used  in  1909  in  the  United  States  were 
derived  from  waste  papers.  Vast  quantities  may  readily  be 
saved  which  now  go  to  waste,  as  was  definitely  proved  by 


RAW  MATERIALS  17 

England's  experience  during  the  war,  when  the  imports  of 
pulp  were  shut  off  and  immediate  substitutes  had  to  be 
found. 

This  is  a  matter  demanding  the  attention  not  only  of 
printers,  but  of  municipalities  and  nations.  It  offers  an 
immediate  source  of  relief  from  the  drain  on  our  forests  and 
is  hence  a  most  practical  form  of  conservation.  Further- 
more as  demonstrated  by  the  city  of  Cleveland  the  revenue 
from  collecting  waste  papers  assists  substantially  in  off- 
setting the  cost  of  the  collection  of  municipal  wastes. 


CHAPTER  THREE 

FUTURE  FIBER  POSSIBILITIES 

THE  United  States   Department   of   Agriculture,    in 
August,  1911,  issued  a  treatise  on  "Crop  Plants  for 
Paper-Making,"  in  which  the  author,  Charles  J.  Brand, 
concluded:  "There  is  some  skepticism  as  to  the  failure  of 
pulpwood  supplies,  but  this  is  certainly  poorly  grounded. 

During  1909  the  quantity  of  spruce  used  was  less  by  40,000 
cords  than  in  1907,  but  the  cost  was  $2,000,000  greater. 
Present  efforts  in  connection  with  reforestation  of  spruce 
and  poplar  are  not  extensive  enough  to  produce  any  note- 
worthy effect  upon  the  available  supply  within  a  generation. 
"At  the  present  rate  of  increase  in  consumption,  it  will 
require  between  15,000,000  and  20,000,000  cords  of  wood 
for  pulp  and  paper  fiber  in  1950.  It  will  certainly  be  impos- 
sible to  furnish  this  from  the  forests.  If  every  acre  cut  over 
each  year  were  reforested,  it  would  be  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years,  or  possibly  even  longer,  before  the  trees  could  obtain 
sufficient  size  to  warrant  cutting.  .  The  forests  can  not  re- 
cover from  overdrafts  continually  being  made  on  them. 
Hence  it  is  only  a  question  of  a  limited  number  of  years  until 
paper  fiber  must  be  grown  as  a  crop,  as  are  practically  all 
other  plants  materials  entering  into  the  economy  of  man. 
While  the  conservation  of  only  a  few  of  the  by-products  of 
the  farms  yielding  paper  fiber  can  be  accomplished  profitably 
in  the  near  future,  and  only  a  few  of  the  plants  promise  to  be 
money-makers  immediately  if  grown  solely  for  paper  pro- 
duction, it  seems  very  probable  that  raw  products,  now 
scarcely  considered,  may  in  a  few  years  play  an  important 
part  in  the  paper  and  pulp  industry." 

Two  lines  of  research  are  now  being  followed  by  the 
United  States  Government.  The  Forest  Products  Labora- 
tory of  the  Forest  Service  is  investigating  a  large  number  of 

(18) 


FUTURE  FIBER  POSSIBILITIES  19 

coniferous  and  broad-leaved  trees,  which  have  not  hitherto 
been  used  in  paper-making.  These  sources  are  likely  to  be 
the  first  which  manufactures  will  turn  to,  as  the  processes 
involved  are  such  as  they  are  already  familiar  with,  and  the 
apparatus  with  which  they  are  supplied  is  suitable. 

The  second  line  of  research  is  being  followed  by  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  assisted  by  the  Bureau  of  Chem- 
istry, and  is  concerned  with  plants  other  than  trees.  Pri- 
vate investigations  are  also  being  carried  on. 

The  following  five  requirements  are  given  by  the  Bureau 
of  Plant  Industry,  Circular  No.  82,  as  to  the  availability  of 
crop  plants: 

1.  They  must  exist  in  large  quantities. 

2.  They  must  be  available  throughout  the  year. 

3.  They   must  yield   a   relatively   high   percentage   of 
cellulose. 

4.  The  fiber  cells  or  cellulose,  must  be  of  a  highly  resis- 
tant character,  and  must  have  length,  strength  and  good 
felting   qualities. 

5.  And  must  be  of  such  a  nature  that  the  cost  of  obtain- 
ing the  fiber  will  not  be  prohibitive. 

Fibers  complying  with  these  conditions  will  come  into 
commercial  use  whenever  the  increasing  costs  of  wood-pulp 
reach  a  figure  approximately  equal  to  cost  of  producing 
cellulose  from  any  other  available  source.  Up  to  the  present 
time  this  has  not  been  brought  about,  but  the  steady  in- 
crease in  the  cost  of  wood-pulp  is  approaching  a  level  with 
which  crop  pulps  may  soon  compete. 

A  synopsis  of  the  fibers  described  in  the  circular  referred 
to  is  given  below. 

CORN  STALKS. — On  account  of  the  enormous  supply, 
corn  stalks  were  first  taken  up  by  the  Bureau.  The  yield 
of  stalks  per  acre  is  conservatively  estimated  at  one  ton,  and 
the  annual  product  is  placed  as  at  least  100,000,000  tons,  of 
which  not  over  one-third  is  believed  to  be  utilized  by  the 
farmers.  Three  products  have  been  derived  from  the  stalks: 


20  FUTURE  FIBER  POSSIBILITIES 

1.  Long  fiber  suitable  for  paper-making,  composing  12 
to  18  per  cent  of  the  bone-dry  weight. 

2.  Pith  pulp,  suitable  for  paper  specialties,  equal  to  15 
to  30  per  cent  bone-dry  weight. 

3.  Corn-stalk  extract,  obtained  by  lixivaition,  and  of 
value  as  a  cattle  food,  a  ton  of  stalks  yielding  200  to  300 
pounds  of  soluble  solids. 

It  would  require  an  immense  area  to  supply  a  mill  of 
moderate  capacity,  and  the  question  of  whether  the  deriva- 
tives of  corn  stalks  could  be  sufficiently  valuable  to  over- 
come the  costs  of  harvesting  and  hauling,  has  never  been 
answered  by  any  experiment  on  a  commercial  scale. 

BROOM  CORN. — Broom  corn  contains  a  higher  percent- 
age of  fibers  than  corn  stalks.  In  laboratory  and  semi- 
commercial  tests,  fiber  yields  of  32  to  40  per  cent  have  been 
obtained  with  a  comparatively  low  consumption  of  chemi- 
cals. The  Bureau  claims  that  results  "indicate  that  this  ma- 
terial is  suitable  for  immediate  use  in  paper-making  on  the 
basis  of  quality  of  fiber  produced  and  yield  of  fiber  secured." 
It  is  estimated  that  450,000  tons  is  the  approximate  annual 
crop.  Food  extracts  may  also  be  obtained  as  well  as  the 
fiber. 

RICE  STRAW. — The  Chinese  and  Japanese  have  for  years 
used  rice  straw  in  paper-making,  and  it  is  regarded  by  the 
Government  investigators  as  one  of  the  most  promising  crop 
materials,  the  annual  crop  approximating  1,500,000  tons. 

COTTON-HULL  FIBER. — The  lint  adhering  to  the  cotton 
hulls,  after  the  long  fiber  has  been  removed,  may  be  con- 
served as  a  by-product  of  the  cotton-seed  oil  industry,  and 
this  fiber  may  be  reckoned  among  the  possibilities.  Cotton 
stalks  also  have  been  the  subject  of  experiment.  The  yield 
per  acre,  however,  is  not  estimated  at  above  1,000  pounds, 
so  that  immense  tracts  would  have  to  be  covered  in  accumu- 
lating any  considerable  supply,  and  after  the  cotton  crop 
has  all  been  picked,  negro  help  is  very  difficult  to  obtain. 


FUTURE  FIBER  POSSIBILITIES  21 

BAGASSE. — Bagasse,  or  the  refuse  sugar-cane,  is  given 
rather  scant  consideration  in  the  Government  report.  Its 
individual  fibers  are  short,  and  the  percentage  of  pith  is 
large.  Several  small  plants  have  had  discouraging  expe- 
riences in  attempting  to  put  this  material  to  commercial  use. 
Nevertheless,  recent  experiments  carried  on  in  the  interests 
of  the  United  Fruit  Company,  under  the  Simmons  patents, 
point  to  a  promising  result.  Under  this  process  the  cane  is 
not  treated  in  the  usual  manner  of  crushing  for  the  extraction 
of  sugar.  Instead,  it  is  shredded,  dried,  and  the  pith  separated 
from  the  fiber.  The  product  is  then  shipped  in  bales  to  re- 
fineries, where  the  sugar  is  extracted. 

This  method  is  said  to  achieve  an  almost  complete 
extraction  of  the  sugar,  whereas  the  old  method  of  crushing 
loses  about  twenty  per  cent  of  the  sugar  and  injures  the 
fibers.  The  Simmons  process  does  no  damage  to  the  fibers, 
which  though  short,  possess  excellent  felting  properties. 
The  pith,  being  cellulose  of  a  non-fibrous  structure,  has  a 
value  for  other  industries  than  paper-making. 

FLAX  STRAW. — There  is  an  abundant  annual  crop  of 
flax  straw.  The  avarage  yield  per  acre  is  about  one  ton, 
and  the  total  annual  production  about  3,000,000  tons.  In 
the  opinion  of  the  Government  investigators,  it  is  a  "most 
promising"  material. 

There  are  practical  pulp  men  who  deprecate  the  findings 
of  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry.  Martin  L.  Griffin,  chemist 
to  the  Oxford  Paper  Company,  of  Rumford,  Maine,  in  an 
article  appearing  in  Volume  XI,  No.  2,  of  Paper  for  March, 
1913,  makes  the  following  statement: 

"There  is  a  popular  view,  which  has  been  erroneously 
fostered  by  the  Government,  that  there  are  exhaustless 
resources  of  waste  fiber  in  our  country,  suitable  for  paper, 
and  a  substitute  for  wood.  I  once  thought  so  myself.  It  is 
very  natural  to  think  that  the  discarded  stalks  of  sugar-cane, 
corn,  cotton,  rice,  flax,  and  other  plants,  which  mature 
annually,  would  prove  an  abundant  substitute  for  wood. 


22  FUTURE  FIBER  POSSIBILITIES 

"These  have  all  been  exploited  for  twenty-five  years  to 
my  personal  knowledge,  with  no  visible  results.  A  plant  has 
one  function  to  perform — it  is  to  flower,  fruit  or  make  stalk. 
Its  other  functions  are  subordinate  and  produce  only  by- 
products. The  stalk  is  the  main  product  of  the  forest  tree. 
No  other  fibrous  material  is  so  rich  in  cellulose;  no  other 
which  lends  itself  so  easily  to  paper-mill  processing.  It  has 
no  seasons  of  harvest;  does  not  require  curing;  does  not 
easily  decay;  requires  no  packing,  and  may  be  stored  best  in 
the  rivers.  All  these  waste  stalks  are  pithy,  bulky  and  perish- 
able, and  would  require  much  labor  to  gather,  pack  and  ship. 
These  are  but  a  few  reasons  why  we  may  expect  no  practical 
results  from  this  source.  Wood  fills  a  place  no  other  material 
can.  There  is  no  substitute  for  it." 

In  this  argument  Mr.  Griffin  ignores  the  fact  that  esparto 
grass  is  a  crop  which  gives  a  yield  of  cellulose  practically 
equal  to  wood,  and  of  equal,  if  not  superior,  quality.  Al- 
though it  is  not  available  for  American  mills,  it  is  worth 
citing  in  contradiction  to  the  flat  statement  that  "there  is  no 
substitute  for  wood."  Furthermore,  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  American  crops  furnish  an  inferior  fiber,  though  the 
cellulose  yield  is  less.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  low  cellu- 
lose yield  may  be  compensated  for  through  the  production 
of  by-products  along  with  the  paper-making  material. 
Hitherto,  however,  this  low  yield  and  other  considerations, 
as  expense  of  harvesting  and  packing,  have  been  the  factors 
which  have  retarded  their  development,  but  the  increasing 
scarcity  of  wood,  and  its  consequent  advance  is  cost,  is 
hastening  the  day  when  crop  plants  will  become  not  only 
valuable,  but  necessary  adjuncts  to  the  paper  industry. 


FUTURE  FIBER  POSSIBILITIES 


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CHAPTER  FOUR 

THE    CONSTITUENTS    OF    PAPER 

THE  technique  of  paper-making  varies  greatly  in  ac- 
cordance with  each  particular  product.  In  fact,  so 
wide  is  the  range  of  paper  products,  that  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  paper-making  severally  require  knowledge 
so  special  that  an  artisan  in  one  branch  might  be  as  useless 
in  another  as  if  it  were  an  entirely  different  industry.  The 
coating  of  paper,  for  example,  is  an  absolutely  different  trade 
from  that  of  paper-making. 

This  remarkable  diversification  is  entirely  the  develop- 
ment of  a  century,  and  principally  the  evolution  of  the  past 
forty  years  consequent  to  the  discovery  of  wood  cellulose. 
To-day  the  products  of  the  paper-mill  are  no  longer  confined 
to  the  use  of  pen  or  press.  We  ride  on  car  wrheels  made  in 
part  of  paper;  sit  in  paper-seated  chairs;  drink  from  paper 
cups;  eat  from  paper  plates;  use  paper  napkins;  wrap  our 
food  in  parchment  paper;  sheath  our  buildings  with  paper 
without,  and  wall  paper  or  wall  board  within;  keep  out  the 
rain  with  roofing  paper  if  we  please.  Our  shoes,  even, 
contain  a  paper  part,  said  to  be  more  durable  than  leather. 
Millions  of  packages,  mailing-tubes  and  boxes  are  made  of 
paper.  It  is  even  spun  into  a  kind  of  yarn  and  woven  into 
imitation  cloth,  while  a  surprising  imitation  silk  necktie  is 
produced  from  wood-pulp.  In  electrical  engineering,  paper 
as  an  insulator  is  almost  indispensable. 

All  these  paper  commodities,  and  more,  too  numerous  to 
mention,  require  special  machinery  and  treatment.  To  give 
an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  subject  would  require  vol- 
umes, but  for  the  purpose  of  this  book  we  are  principally 
concerned  with  printing  and  writing  papers. 

Broadly  speaking,  there  are  five  steps  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  paper: 

(24) 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 


.e 

8  . 


J 


26  THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 

1.  The  isolation  of  the  paper-making  fiber  from  the 
raw  material. 

2.  The  conversion  of  the  fiber  into  pulp. 

3.  The  beating  and  refining  of  the  fiber,  and  the  admix- 
ture of  non-fibrous  components. 

4.  The  manufacture  of  the  mixture  into  paper. 

5.  The  finishing  of  the  paper  and  its  preparation  for 
the   market. 

Cotton  and  linen  rags,  hemp,  woods  and  plants  each 
require  their  peculiar  treatments.     Cotton  and  linen,  being 
the  original  paper-making  fibers,  will  be  considered  first. 
RAG  STOCK. 

Rag  papers  may  be  made  from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
rags,  so  the  fineness  of  the  finished  product  depends  upon 
the  newness  and  quality  of  the  rags.  New  white  cuttings 
from  textile  factories  are  the  best,  as  their  strength  is  unim- 
paired by  previous  use,  and  they  may  be  prepared  for  manu- 
facture with  a  minimum  use  of  chemicals. 

From  this  high  standard,  rags  are  graded  down  in  accord- 
ance with  their  color,  cleanliness  and  condition.  The  first 
sortings  are  made  by  stock-dealers,  and  the  paper-maker 
orders  whatever  grades  are  suitable  to  his  purpose.  After 
their  receipt  at  the  mill,  the  bales  of  rags  are  opened,  dusted 
by  machine  and  distributed  to  girls,  who  sort  them,  open 
up  the  seams  so  as  to  release  hidden  dirt,  remove  bottons 
and  other  foreign  material. 

In  the  making  of  the  highest  grades,  the  new  white  rags 
are  cut  by  hand  into  small  pieces  of  uniform  size,  but  ordi- 
narily they  are  fed  into  a  mechanical  rag  cutter.  After 
this  they  are  passed  through  a  dusting  machine  to  rid  them 
as  far  as  possible  from  dirt  and  foreign  matter,  which  might 
otherwise  appear  as  specks  in  the  paper. 

BOILING. — Dyes  and  greasy  matters  are  associated  with 
the  fibers,  and  in  order  to  obtain  the  pure  cellulose  fiber  the 
rags  are  cooked,  under  steam  pressure,  in  rotary  boilers 
with  alkali.  This  saponifies  and  dissolves  the  non-cellulose 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER  27 

compounds,  and  the  soda  in  combination  with  these  soluble 
materials  is  subsequently  washed  out.  The  amount  of 
steam  pressure,  the  quantity  of  chemicals,  and  the  dura- 
tion of  the  cooking,  are  subject  to  variation  under  different 
conditions.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  process  the  manholes 
in  the  boilers  are  opened,  and  the  contents  are  deposited  on 
the  floor,  later  to  be  transferred  to  the  washer  room. 

WASHING. — A  washing  engine  consists  of  an  oval  tub 
about  four  feet  high.  It  is  divided  longitudinally  by  a  parti- 
tion or  "mid-feather,"  with  a  passage  left  at  either  end  for  the 
circulation  of  the  stock.  On  one  side  is  located  a  large  roll, 
having  a  continuous  parallel  series  of  knives  horizontally 
inserted  in  its  surface.  The  floor  of  the  engine  slopes  gently 
to  a  point  under  the  roll,  where  a  bed  plate  is  set.  Behind 
the  roll  is  a  raised  partition  or  dam,  over  which  the  stock  is 
thrown  as  it  passes  between  the  beater  roll  and  the  bed  plate. 
This  is  known  as  the  "back-fall,"  and  assists  in  the  circula- 
tion. The  roll  may  be  raised  or  lowered  over  the  bed  plate, 
and  by  this  means  the  breaking  of  the  stock  is  regulated. 

Affixed  to  the  tub  are  one  or  more  washing  cylinders,  so 
arranged  that  they  may  be  lowered  into  the  stock.  These 
are  constructed  in  such  a  way  that  during  the  process  of 
washing  the  water  passes  through  their  wire-covered  sur- 
faces and  is  drained  into  the  hollow  axle  of  the  roll  by  an  in- 
terior arrangement,  called  buckets.  The  axle,  being  open 
at  one  end,  permits  the  wash  water  to  escape. 

At  first  the  engine  is  partly  filled  with  water,  then  the 
rags  are  gradually  thrown  in  until  the  tub  is  full.  The 
revolving  roll  keeps  the  mass  in  circulation,  while  the  rags 
are  broken  and  shredded  as  they  pass  beneath  it.  A  con- 
tinuous stream  of  fresh  water  runs  into  the  tub,  and  in 
running  out  through  the  revolving  washer  drums  carries 
off  the  dirt,  but  the  fibers  themselves  can  not  pass  through 
the  wire  coverings,  so  remain  until  cleansed.  Necessarily 
the  water  used  must  be  free  from  sediment  or  mineral  im- 


28  THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 

purities,  such  as  iron,  otherwise  it  would  fill  the  stock  with 
specks.  Therefore,  a  filter  plant  is  usually  maintained. 

BLEACHING. — After  the  washing  has  been  completed  the 
drums  are  raised  clear  of  the  stock  and  bleaching  liquor  is 
introduced.  This  is  an  important  step,  and  if  not  carefully 
managed  may  impair  the  stock.  For  instance,  if  bleaching  is 
carried  on  at  too  high  a  temperature,  the  white  color  obtained 
will  not  be  permanent,  and  discoloration  will  occur  after  the 
paper  is  made.  Much  of  the  paper,  which  at  first  displays  a 
brilliant  white  color,  will  afterward  take  on  a  yellowish  tinge, 
especially  if  it  is  exposed  to  light.  A  comparison  between 
the  century-old  hand-made  papers  and  modern  "fine  writ- 
ings," makes  the  old  papers  appear  a  "natural"  shade,  but 
place  both  for  a  few  hours  in  the  sunlight  and  often  the  mod- 
ern paper  will  fade,  whereas  the  old  sun-bleached  papers 
remain  unaltered.  The  high  artificial  bleaching  does  not 
insure  permanent  results. 

After  the  bleach  liquor  has  been  thoroughly  mixed  in, 
the  stock  is  discharged  into  drainers  and  allowed  to  stand 
for  a  week  or  more,  until  no  traces  of  chlorine  remain.  In 
this  state  the  pulp  is  known  as  "half -stock." 

The  treatment  of  hemp  is  so  similiar  to  that  of  rags  that 
a  description  here  of  the  process  is  superfluous. 

WOOD-PULPS. 

Wood-pulps  are  of  two  classes,  mechanical  and  chemical. 
In  the  lay  mind  there  often  appears  to  be  some  confusion 
between  the  two,  leading  to  an  unreasonable  prejudice 
against  papers  made  from  either  class.  The  fact  is  so  gener- 
ally known  that  news-print,  one  of  the  cheapest  grades 
of  paper,  is  made  from  wood,  that  the  partially  informed 
person  is  prone  to  think  that  all  wood  papers  are  of  low 
quality,  whereas  paper  of  permanence  and  excellent  quality 
may  be  made  from  the  high  grades  of  wood  cellulose  chemi- 
cally prepared. 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER  29 

GROUND  WOOD. — The  mechanical,  or  ground  wood,  as 
its  name  implies,  is  made  by  grinding  logs  from  which  the 
bark  has  been  removed.  The  logs  are  shipped,  or  floated 
from  the  lumber  camps  to  the  mills,  where  they  are  cut  to 
convenient  length  and  the  bark  is  removed.  Next  they  are 
taken  to  the  grinders.  One  type  of  grinder  consists  of  a 
vertical  grindstone  encased  in  an  iron  jacket.  There  are 
three  pockets  over  its  circumference  into  which  the  logs  are 
placed.  They  are  held  by  hydraulic  pressure  against  the 
revolving  stone,  over  which  flows  a  stream  of  water,  and  are 
rapidly  reduced  to  fibers.  These  fibers  are  carried  by  the 
flowing  water  into  a  chamber  below  the  grinders,  passing 
through  a  screen  which  catches  the  coarser  bits,  the  fibers  of 
suitable  size  thus  being  separated  from  the  rest.  This  pulp 
is  still  not  sufficiently  fine  or  uniform,  so  it  is  pumped  into 
screens  and  forced  through  the  finely  perforated  plates. 
The  fibers  are  carried  through  with  a  large  quantity  of  water, 
and  are  formed  into  thick  sheets  by  means  of  a  so-called 
"wet  machine." 

WET  MACHINE. — The  wet  machine  consists  of  a  vat,  in 
which  a  partially  submerged  hollow  drum  rotates.  The 
surface  is  covered  by  a  wire  cloth,  and  the  hollow  axle  of  the 
drum  acts  as  a  drain  for  the  fiber-laden  water,  which,  in 
passing  through  the  drum,  deposits  a  film  of  fibers  upon  the 
revolving  surface.  This  soft  pulp  film,  continuously  form- 
ing, is  removed  from  the  top  of  the  drum  by  an  endless  felt 
running  tangent  to  it,  and  held  in  close  contact  with  it  by  a 
couch  roll,  the  pressure  of  which  causes  the  web  of  pulp  to 
adhere  to  the  felt. 

The  felt  passes  between  two  squeeze  rolls,  and  the  pulp 
adhering  to  the  upper  roll  is  wound  up  until  a  certain  num- 
ber of  layers  have  accumulated,  when  it  is  cut  across  by  a 
knife  and*  removed  as  a  thick  sheet. 

The  sheets,  folded  to  a  convenient  size,  separated  by 
alternate  pieces  of  sacking,  are  put  in  a  hydraulic  press  and 
squeezed  to  remove  the  water.  The  pulp  is  taken  from  the 


30 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER  31 

press  about  fifty  per  cent  moist;  the  sheets  are  separated 
from  the  sacking  and  are  now  ready  for  use  or  for  shipment. 
It  is  also  quite  customary  to  ship  the  pulp  without  having 
pressed  it.  In  this  case  it  contains  about  70%  water,  due 
allowance  for  which  is  made  in  billing. 

This  pulp  contains  practically  all  the  constituents  of  the 
original  wood,  has  little  strength,  inferior  felting  properties, 
and  is  not  of  permanent  character.  Its  utility  results  largely 
from  its  cheapness.  When  made  into  paper  with  a  suitable 
admixture  of  sulphite  pulp,  for  strength's  sake,  it  proves  to 
be  admirably  adapted  for  the  fast-running  newspaper 
presses,  as  ink  dries  upon  it  almost  instantly. 

It  is  also  used  in  the  making  of  boxboards,  cheap  card- 
boards, pie  plates,  wall  papers,  etc.  It  should,  however, 
be  strictly  excluded  from  all  papers  of  more  than  ephemeral 
purposes,  because  of  its  lack  of  permanence.  The  appear- 
ance of  a  paper  containing  much  ground  wood  is  inferior, 
as  the  color  is  poor  and  small  shives  of  wood  may  be  dis- 
cerned on  the  surface.  An  easy  and  reliable  way  to  ascer- 
tain the  presence  of  ground  wood  is  to  moisten  the  paper 
with  a  drop  of  strong  nitric  acid,  which  develops  a  dark- 
brown  stain  if  ground  wood  is  present.  Another  good  test 
is  phloroglucine,  which  turns  ground  wood  to  a  bright  car- 
mine shade.  The  quantity  of  ground  wood  is  roughly  indi; 
cated  by  the  intensity  of  the  stain. 

BLEACHED  GROUND  WOOD 

A  quality  of  pulp  intermediate  between  chemically  pro- 
duced wood  cellulose  and  ground  wood  is  obtained  by 
bleaching  an  especially  finely  ground  quality  of  pulp  wood. 
This  product  is  excellent  as  a  filler  for  medium  grades  of 
paper,  as  it  is  opaque — fine,  and  of  fair  color.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  open  to  the  same  criticism  as  other  ground  wood  as  to 
permanence,  though  in  a  less  degree. 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

THE  CONSTITUENTS  or  PAPER — Continued 

CHEMICAL  WOOD-PULPS.— Chemical  wood-pulps 
are  obtained  by  a  variety  of  processes,  all  of  which 
have  as  their  object  the  isolation  of  the  pure  cellu- 
lose fiber  by  the  dissolution  of  non-cellulose  components. 
The  same  principles  are  applied  to  the  treatment  of  esparto 
straw  or  other  plants.  The  character  of  the  pulp  depends 
not  only  upon  the  nature  of  the  wood,  but  also  upon  the 
solvents  used  and  the  duration  and  severity  of  the  cooking. 

The  preparatory  steps  to  any  process  by  which  chemical 
wood-pulp  is  made  are  identical  with  the  preparation  of 
trees  for  ground  wood,  only  after  the  logs  have  been  "barked," 
they  are  reduced  to  chips  by  a  mechanical  "chipper."  The 
ordinary  practice  in  America  is  to  sort  out  any  knotty  or 
imperfect  logs  as  they  pass  on  a  conveyor  from  the  "barker," 
and  if  the  log  it  too  faulty  it  is  discarded.  As  it  is  desirable 
to  have  a  uniform  size  of  chips,  the  chips  are  passed  through 
a  screen  for  this  purpose. 

The  chips  are  stored  in  bins  convenient  to  the  digesters. 
The  digesters  are  of  two  types,  rotary  and  stationary.  The 
rotary  type  is  horizontal  and  the  stationary  is  vertical. 

After  the  digester  has  been  loaded  with  chips,  the  chem- 
icals are  introduced  and  the  ' '  cook ' '  is  carried  on  by  means 
of  high  steam  pressure.  The  strength  of  the  chemicals, 
pressure  of  steam,  and  duration  of  cooking,  are  the  principal 
factors  in  determining  the  result  from  any  particular  wood. 
Slow  cooking  at  low  temperatures  yields  the  best  results. 

SODA  PULP. — Soda  pulp  takes  its  name  from  the  caustic 
soda  which  is  used  as  a  solvent.  Rotary  digesters  are  em- 
ployed in  its  manufacture.  The  principal  wood  used  for 
making  soda  pulp  is  poplar,  though  chestnut  and  aspen  are 

(32) 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 


33 


34  THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 

also  used.  Soda  pulp  is  soft  in  texture  and  of  no  great 
strength,  but  in  combination  with  harder  stocks  it  lends 
mellowness  to  the  sheet.  It  is  almost  one-third  cheaper 
than  bleached  sulphite  pulp,  quotations  for  February,  1915, 
being  $2.20  to  $2.35  per  hundredweight,  whereas  bleached 
sulphite  was  quoted  at  $2.80  to  $2.95  per  hundredweight. 
The  prices  since  the  war  have  risen  over  100%  and  were 
quoted  in  September  1919  at  $4.75  to  $5.00  and  $5.75  to 
$6.25,  respectively.  One  reason  for  the  difference  in  price 
between  soda  and  sulphite  pulps,  is  that  the  soda  is  recovered 
from  the  spent  liquor,  whereas  in  the  sulphite  process  the 
liquors  go  to  waste. 

SULPHATE  PULP. — The  solvent  used  in  making  sulphate 
pulp  is  a  mixture  of  caustic  soda,  sulphide  of  soda  and  sul- 
phate of  soda.  Sprucewood,  largely,  is  used  and  the  pulp 
produced  is  exceedingly  strong.  Unbleached  sulphate  pulp 
is  used,  notably,  in  the  making  of  Kraft  wrapping-paper. 
The  soda  is  recovered  from  the  spent  liquors. 

SULPHITE  PULP. — Su'phite  pulp  is  produced  by  the  use 
of  bisulphite  of  lime;  this,  being  acid,  necessitates  a  special 
brick  lining  in  the  digesters,  which  are  of  the  vertical  type. 
Sprucewood  is  the  best  raw  material  and  yields  a  strong, 
fairly  long  fiber,  capable  of  being  bleached  to  a  good  white 
color. 

MITSCHERLICH  PULP. — A  special  method  for  making  sul- 
phite pulp  was  invented  in  Germany  by  Professor  Mitscher- 
lich.  It  varies  from  the  ordinary  process  in  that  the  cook  is 
continued  over  four  times  as  long  under  lower  steam  pressure, 
and  yields  a  fiber  of  greater  strength. 

The  steps  subsequent  to  cooking  chemical  pulps  of  all 
kinds  are  similar.  After  emptying  the  digesters,  the  soft, 
discolored  mass  of  fibers  is  washed  and  bleached.  The  yield 
of  cellulose  fiber  is  close  to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  air-dry  weight 
of  the  wood.  The  shives  and  undigested  particles  are  re- 
moved by  screening,  and  the  pulp  is  either  run  out  like 
ground  wood  on  wet  machines,  or  made  up  into  rolls,  or 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 


35 


36  THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 

sheets,  on  a  paper-machine.  The  soda  pulp  is  shipped  in 
rolls  and  the  sulphite  in  sheets,  as  this  is  the  most  favorable 
form  in  which  to  handle  them  at  the  paper-mill.  If  the  pulp 
is  to  be  used  on  the  premises,  it  is  made  up  into  laps  on  the 
wet  machine  and  is  not  artificially  dried.  The  so-called 
"air  dry"  pulp  contains  about  10%  moisture,  and  pulp  con- 
taining not  over  this  amount  of  moisture  is  billed  at  its  actual 
weight. 

ESPARTO  AND  STRAW. — Esparto  pulp  is  made  by  the  soda 
process  from  a  grass  obtained  in  the  circum-Mediterranean 
countries,  and  is  used  most  extensively  in  England  and  some- 
what on  the  Continent,  but  freights  have  been  prohibit- 
ive for  American  manufacturers. 

Straw  pulp  is  similarly  made,  and  while  occasionally  used 
on  medium  grades  of  writing-papers,  its  principal  use  in  this 
country  is  for  strawboard  and  cheap  wrappings.  It  is  expen- 
sive to  reduce  to  a  clean,  bleached  pulp  on  account  of  its 
knots,  and  the  large  quantities  of  silicious  matter  it  contains. 

WASTE  PAPERS. — The  next  largest  source  of  paper- 
making  fibers  to  wood  is  the  waste  paper,  such  as  old  books, 
magazines,  newspapers,  binders'  waste,  paper  shavings  and 
miscellaneous  waste.  This  stock  is  collected  by  regular 
packers,  sorted,  and  sold  by  grade  to  the  mills. 

The  poorest  grade  consists  of  a  mixture  of  miscellaneous 
papers  of  all  colors  and  description.  It  is  only  used  in  the 
production  of  boxboards,  sheathing  paper,  and  other  coarse 
varieties,  and  without  undergoing  any  preliminary  treatment 
it  is  shoveled  right  into  the  beaters. 

A  higher  grade  consists  only  of  mixed  papers,  printed  or 
unprinted.  Next  is  a  grade  containing  no  ground  wood  or 
colored  papers,  and  above  this  are  graded  old  ledger  and 
writing  papers. 

Paper  trimmings  are  divided  into  four  classes,  white  and 
mixed,  soft  and  hard  "shavings,"  and  are  especially  available, 
as  they  may  be  used  after  sorting  and  dusting  without  under- 
going further  treatment,  but  it  is  customary  to  macerate 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 


37 


38  THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 

them  in  some  sort  of  a  pulper  before  placing  with  other  stock 
in  the  beaters.  The  printed  waste  must  be  boiled  in  a 
solution  of  soda  ash.  This  makes  the  ink  removable. 
After  about  six  hours*  boiling,  the  stock  is  transferred  to 
washers  and  treated  like  rags.  The  ink  and  dirt  having  first 
been  removed,  bleaching  solution  is  introduced,  and  finally 
the  stock  is  let  down  into  drainers.  In  some  mills  the  drain- 
ing is  omitted,  the  excess  bleach  is  washed  out  and  an 
antichlor  added;  then  the  stock  is  pumped  over  to  a  beating 
engine  to  be  mixed  with  the  other  ingredients  preparatory  to 
manufacture.  This  process  is  less  thorough,  and  there  is 
more  danger  of  getting  residues  of  bleach  into  the  paper,  as 
it  is  rather  a  nice  matter  to  exactly  neutralize  the  bleach  in 
the  washer,  and  the  maintenance  of  a  uniform  color  is 
endangered. 

Printers,  or  others,  who  accumulate  large  quantities  of 
waste  papers,  will  find  that  it  pays  to  keep  the  various  grades 
in  separate  receptacles,  as  a  better  price  may  be  obtained  for 
it  in  this  way.  Furthermore,  by  means  of  a  baling  press,  the 
papers  may  be  set  aside  in  compact  bales,  which  occupy  less 
room  and  are  not  so  great  a  fire  risk  as  loose  accumulations. 
The  fact  that  21.4  per  cent  of  the  paper-making  fibers, 
according  to  United  States  Census  Report,  1909,  are  derived 
from  waste  papers,  indicates  their  importance  as  raw  mate- 
rials, while  their  use  lessens  the  drain  upon  our  forests. 

THE   NON-FIBROUS   CONSTITUENTS   OF   PAPER. 

The  non-fibrous  constituents  of  paper  are  the  mineral 
fillers,  the  ingredients  for  sizing,  and  the  coloring  pigments 
and  dyes.  Mineral  fillers  should  not  be  regarded  as  adul- 
terants. They  are  used,  not  as  a  means  for  adding  weight, 
but  for  the  sake  of  certain  effects  which  are  requisite  in  many 
papers.  No  filler  is  used  on  good  writings  or  ledgers,  as  the 
printing  requirements  do  not  call  for  a  closely  filled  surface 
or  a  mellow  texture. 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER  39 

In  book  papers  a  varying  percentage  of  clay  is  used,  as 
it  improves  the  printing  quality  by  filling  up  the  interstices 
between  the  fibers  and  increases  opacity.  Papers  for  half- 
tone printing  require  more  filling,  in  order  to  have  smooth, 
level  surfaces. 

There  are  several  kinds  of  filler  in  common  use.  The 
most  common  is  China  clay,  of  which  the  cleanest  and  finest 
grades  are  obtained  principally  in  England.  No  equally 
good  deposit  has  yet  been  successfully  developed  in  this 
country.  Clay  is  a  product  of  the  natural  disintegration  of 
feldspar.  It  is  soft,  plastic,  and  non-crystalline. 

Agalite  and  talc,  which  are  silicates  of  magnesia,  are  also 
used.  They  are  cheaper  and  less  desirable,  both  on  account 
of  color  and  their  crystalline  nature,  which  is  more  or  less 
damaging  to  cutter  knives  and  printing-plates.  These  fillers 
are  used  widely  in  the  cheaper  book-papers,  and  can  often 
be  detected  by  holding  a  sheet  against  the  light,  as  the  little, 
translucent  crystalline  particles  then  appear  like  pinholes. 

Sulphate  of  lime,  commercially  known  under  such  names 
as  gypsum,  pearl  hardening,  satinite,  etc.,  is  a  white,  crys- 
talline substance.  This  is  used  to  some  extent  in  paper- 
making,  but  principally  as  a  coating. 

Barium  sulphate,  prepared  chemically,  and  known  as 
blanc  fixe,  is  used  largely  for  coating  papers  because  of  its 
brilliancy  and  purity  of  color. 

SIZING  MATERIALS.  —  Starch  was  one  of  the  earliest 
materials  used  for  sizing  paper,  and  is  used  considerably  in 
addition  to  other  materials,  as  it  adds  a  hard,  tinny  character 
desired  by  the  trade  on  certain  grades.  Silicate  of  soda  is 
also  used  to  impart  similar  characteristics. 

Gelatine,  or  animal  size,  is  obtained  by  boiling  down 
suitable  animal  tissues.  As  a  sizing  agent,  it  is  applied 
after  the  paper  is  made  by  passing  the  web  of  paper  through 
a  vat  containing  the  hot  liquid  size. 


40  THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  PAPER 

Casein,  which  is  sometimes  used  as  sizing,  is  more  impor- 
tant in  its  functions  as  an  adhesive  for  the  making  of  coated 
paper.  It  is  prepared  by  treating  skim  milk  with  weak  acid. 

Rosin  size,  the  most  widely  used  size,  is  produced  from 
rosin  by  cooking  with  soda  ash,  which  produces  a  soft  soap. 
The  soap  when  mixed  with  water  by  agitation  assumes  a 
milky  appearance.  In  this  condition  it  is  poured  into  the 
beater  after  all  other  ingredients  have  entered,  and  is  pre- 
cipitated by  the  addition  of  alum  as  a  resinate  of  alumina. 

IMPURITIES  IN  PAPER. — Impurities,  either  chemical  or 
physical,  are  sometimes  found  in  paper,  owing  to  lax  methods 
or  inferior  materials. 

Free  acid  occasionally  occurs,  and  in  some  cases  wrould  be 
very  deleterious.  In  papers  that  are  to  be  bronzed,  for  ex- 
ample, this  acid  would  tarnish  the  bronze.  Needle  papers, 
and  paper  for  wrapping  steelware,  must  be  acid-free,  other- 
wise they  will  cause  rusting.  The  presence  of  free  acid  may 
only  be  determined  by  an  analyst. 

Sulphur,  which  may  give  rise  to  the  formation  of  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen,  exists  sometimes  as  an  impurity  in 
paper.  It  causes  a  brownish  halo  to  appear  around  printed 
letters,  because  of  its  action  on  printing-ink.  It  would  also 
cause  oxidization  of  jewelry,  mounted  upon  cardboard 
containing  sulphur  residues. 

Free  chlorine,  or  chlorine  compounds,  the  result  of  inade- 
quate draining  of  the  stock,  may  cause  final  disintegration  in 
the  paper.  It  is  the  duty  of  manufacturers  to  guard  against 
this  and  the  other  deficiencies  noted. 

Mineral  impurities  in  paper  are  not  uncommon.  Minute 
particles  of  iron  worn  off  the  machinery,  or  getting  into  the 
stock  in  the  shape  of  wire  stitching,  can  often  be  discovered 
by  the  use  of  a  magnet  test.  In  photographic  papers  this 
must  positively  be  excluded,  but  in  most  papers,  if  the 
particles  do  not  show  as  specks,  and  are  not  large  enough  to 
make  trouble  for  the  printer,  they  are  not  a  serious  menace. 


CHAPTER  SIX 

PAPER-MAKING 

WE  have  now  reviewed  the  various  steps  preparatory 
to  the  process  of  beating,  and  this  process  is  perhaps 
the  most  important  of  all.  The  output  of  a  mill 
depends,  first,  upon  the  quality  of  stock  which  is  furnished  to 
the  beaters,  and  secondly,  on  the  way  the  stock  is  handled 
in  the  beaters.  A  formula,  better  known  as  a  "furnish,"  is 
prepared  by  the  superintendent  and  given  to  the  beater 
engineer.  This  tells  him  exactly  how  to  blend  his  raw 
materials.  Very  few  papers  are  made  from  one  kind  of 
material  alone,  most  papers  being  a  mixture  of  different 
fibers,  with  the  addition  of  mineral  filler,  sizing  and  coloring. 
All  the  ingredients  are  put  together  into  the  beating  engine 
with  a  large  volume  of  water  similar  to  a  washer,  minus 
the  washing  drums. 

BEATING. 

The  process  is  called  beating  because  it  has  displaced 
the  original  method  of  maceration  by  mallets  and  later  by 
the  machine  described  in  Chapter  I  as  a  "stamper." 

The  ultimate  characteristics  of  the  paper  are  dependent 
upon  the  handling  of  the  beater  roll  and  the  character  of  the 
knives.  For  example,  a  blotting-paper  is  made  by  a  quick 
beating  with  sharp  knives.  This  cuts  the  fibers  clean  and 
short  and  leaves  them  in  a  most  absorptive  condition.  The 
very  same  fibers,  treated  with  dull  knives  and  slowly  beaten, 
would  have  an  entirely  different  character.  Their  ends 
would  be  teased  out  and  ragged,  and  in  the  process  of  manu- 
facture they  would  part  very  slowly  from  the  water  absorb- 
ed. The  paper  produced  would  have  the  characteristics  of  a 
writing-paper,  hard  and  strong.  This  instance  will  afford 
some  idea  of  the  wide  variation  in  results  which  may  be 

(41) 


42  PAPER-MAKING 

brought  about  by  varying  the  treatment  in  the  beaters.  So 
important  is  this  step  in  manufacturing  that  it  has  been  said 
with  a  good  deal  of  truth  that  "the  paper  is  made  in  the 
beaters." 

After  the  process  has  been  continued  a  sufficient  length  of 
time,  the  stuff  is  emptied  into  a  chest  called  the  "Jordan 
chest,"  because  it  acts  as  a  reservoir  for  another  type  of 
refining  engine  known  as  the  "Jordan."  This  engine  is 
conical  in  shape  and  the  inside  is  lined  with  knives.  A  cone- 
shaped  plug,  also  shod  with  knives,  fits  into  this  shell,  and  by 
the  turn  of  a  screw  may  either  be  moved  in  or  out,  thus  vary- 
ing the  space  between  the  two  sets  of  knives.  By  this  adjust- 
ment the  refining  of  the  pulp  which  flows  through  the  engine 
is  regulated. 

The  stock  passes  through  one  or  more  of  these  "Jordans" 
into  the  machine  chest.  Thence  it  is  pumped  to  a  level 
higher  than  the  machine,  and  flows  through  "sand  settlers" 
to  a  screen.  The  "sand  settler"  is  a  long,  open  trough 
containing  a  series  of  baffle  boards  which  collect  any  sedi- 
ment, preventing  it  from  getting  into  the  paper. 

Screens  are  of  various  types,  the  main  feature  consist- 
ing of  bronze  plates  pierced  with  fine  slots  through  which  the 
fibers  are  forced.  The  object  is  to  give  uniformity  to  the 
stock  which  reaches  the  machine,  and  to  exclude  any  knots 
of  stock,  strings  or  foreign  substances. 

The  width  of  the  slots  is  varied  to  suit  different  stocks — 
some  slots  being  as  fine  as  10/1000  of  an  inch. 

We  have  now  described  the  process  of  paper-making  up 
to  the  point  where  the  stuff  is  formed  into  paper,  and  must 
pause  for  a  description  of  the  paper-machine  itself. 

PAPER-MACHINE. 

The  paper-machine  may  be  considered  in  three  parts: 
The  wet  end  where  the  paper  is  formed  and  pressed,  the 
middle,  where  it  is  dried,  and  the  dry  end,  where  it  is  cal- 
endered, slit  and  wound. 


PAPER-MAKING  43 

There  are  two  distinct  types  of  wet  ends — the  Four- 
drinier  and  the  cylinder.  Both  are  mechanical  reproductions 
in  continuous  process  of  the  steps  taken  in  the  ancient  hand 
methods,  a  brief  consideration  of  which  impresses  clearly  on 
one's  mind  the  rationale  of  the  machine. 

HAND  PROCESS. 

The  tools  of  the  primitive  paper-maker  consisted  of  a  pulp 
vat  for  the  fiber-laden  water,  a  frame,  or  mold,  across  which 
was  stretched  a  mesh  of  closely  woven  wire,  and  a  remov- 
able frame,  known  as  the  deckle,  which  fitted  around  the 
edge  of  the  mold  to  keep  the  moist  pulp  from  overflowing  and 
to  help  regulate  the  thickness  of  the  paper. 

Grasping  the  mold  by  two  opposite  sides,  the  vatman 
submerged  the  mold  in  the  water;  then  raised  it  out,  holding 
it  level.  By  this  means  a  film  of  pulp  was  caught  up,  being 
deposited  on  the  bottom  of  the  mold  by  the  passage  of  the 
water  in  which  the  fibers  had  been  suspended.  A  lateral 
shaking  motion  served  to  knit  the  fibers  together,  and  to 
deposit  them  as  evenly  formed  as  possible  all  over  the  mold. 
As  the  water  drained  through,  the  film  of  pulp  solidified. 
Then  the  deckle  frame  was  removed,  and  there,  on  the  top 
of  the  mold,  was  a  sheet  of  moist  pulp.  The  edges  of  this 
sheet  would  be  thin  and  feather-like  as  a  result  of  the  pulp 
leaking  under  the  deckle.  Hence  the  term  deckle  edge. 

It  required  a  great  deal  of  skill  to  remove  this  film,  while 
preserving  it  intact.  This  was  accomplished  by  inverting 
the  mold  and  pressing  the  sheet  upon  a  moist  felt  cloth.  If 
the  act  was  skilfully  performed,  the  mold  could  be  lifted 
away  from  the  sheet,  leaving  it  unbroken  upon  the  felt. 
Then  it  was  covered  by  a  second  piece  of  felt  and  the  process 
was  repeated  until  a  small  pile  had  accumulated. 

The  pile  was  removed  to  a  screw  press,  wherein  as  much 
water  as  possible  was  squeezed  out  of  the  paper.  Cellulose 
fibers  have  a  strong  affinity  for  water,  however,  and  it  is  said 
that  under  any  pressure  which  such  a  pile  could  withstand, 


44  PAPER-MAKING 

without  becoming  crushed  and  gruelly,  the  paper  would 
retain  water  equal  to  one-half  its  weight.  Hence,  the  last 
vestiges  of  moisture,  excepting  of  course  that  amount  nor- 
mally retained  by  air-dried  paper,  had  to  be  removed  by  eva- 
poration. In  the  old  days,  this  was  accomplished  by  hang- 
ing the  sheets  over  poles  to  dry. 

After  that,  if  the  paper  required  sizing,  the  sheets  were 
dipped  one  by  one  into  a  pot  of  animal  size,  then  dried  once 
more.  Lastly  they  were  finished  to  the  desired  surface  by 
being  placed  between  smooth  plates  and  pressed. 

FIBER    CHARACTERISTICS. 

A  few  moments'  consideration  of  the  changes  which  the 
fibers  undergo  from  their  condition  of  isolation  as  they  exist 
mixed  in  the  vat,  to  their  status  as  components  of  a  sheet  of 
paper,  will  help  to  make  clear  much  that  seems  obscure  about 
the  behavior  of  a  sheet  of  finished  paper,  as  well  as  to  explain 
the  reason  for  the  different  processes  executed  on  the  paper- 
machine. 

The  fiber  is  a  hollow,  collapsed  tube,  the  ends  bruised  and 
frayed  by  the  treatment  in  the  beating  and  refining  engines. 
Absorptive  in  nature  to  a  marked  degree,  it  swells  with  the 
water  it  takes  up  and  is  limp  and  flaccid.  As  the  mold  is 
raised  horizontally  out  of  the  vat  in  the  process  of  forming 
sheets,  all  the  fibers  which  had  been  suspended  in  the  water 
which  passed  through  the  meshes  of  the  mold  are  caught 
like  so  many  fish  in  a  net,  and  lie  spread  in  a  limp,  impression- 
able mass  over  the  surface  of  the  mold  until  they  are  trans- 
ferred by  the  "coucher  man"  to  the  felt.  Little  alteration 
can  take  place  in  the  general  position  of  the  fibers  after  they 
have  been  "couched,"  consequently  the  formation  of  the 
sheet  is  the  most  important  stage  of  the  process.  As  the 
water  is  pressed  out,  each  fiber  contracts  to  some  extent, 
and,  from  a  consistency  like  gruel,  the  formed  sheet  passes 
to  a  more  stable  state,  wherein  it  can  be  gently  handled 
without  disintegrating. 


PAPER-MAKING 


45 


46  PAPER-MAKING 

As  the  drying  proceeds  there  is  a  marked  shrinkage  in 
the  dimensions  of  the  sheet,  caused  by  the  shrinking  of  each 
individual  fiber,  until  the  fibers  are  thoroughly  set,  enmeshed 
one  with  the  other. 

The  addition  of  size  glazes  over  each  fiber  and  makes  it 
less  susceptible  to  moisture.  The  addition  of  clay  permeates 
the  structure,  filling  up  the  interstices.  Up  to  a  certain  point 
the  clay  does  not  materially  weaken  the  structure,  as  a 
certain  percentage  of  empty  air  space  would  exist  without  it. 
Beyond  that  point  the  clay  will  fill  places  that  conceivably 
would  be  filled  by  fibers,  and  having  no  adhesive  strength, 
the  structure  of  a  sheet  overloaded  with  clay  is  weakened  in 
proportion  to  its  overload. 

While  the  fibers  are  more  or  less  moist,  they  are  sus- 
ceptible to  Alteration  in  structure,  and  may  in  this  state  be 
flattened  by  calendering  to  a  smooth  surface,  and  the  presence 
of  clay  helps  to  fill  in  the  microscopic  valleys  between  the 
fibers  so  that  the  surface  becomes  level  to  human  vision. 

THE  FOURDRINIER 

Now  to  return  to  a  sketch  of  the  wet  ends  of  paper- 
machines.  The  Fourdrinier  part  consists  of  a  head  box, 
which  resembles  the  case  of  an  upright  piano.  Where  the 
keyboard  might,  be,  is  a  broad  portal  for  the  passage  of  a 
stream  of  pulp,  the  width  of  the  machine,  onto  a  horizontal, 
endless  wire  belt.  This  wire  belt  is  suspended  in  a  frame 
some  thirty  feet  long  and  held  taut  by  being  stretched  over 
a  number  of  rolls.  The  large  roll  near  the  head  box  is  known 
as  the  breast  roll.  The  still  larger  roll  at  the  other  extreme 
of  the  frame  is  called  the  lower  couch  roll,  on  top  of  which  is 
a  felt- jacketed  couch  roll.  The  wire  is  kept  level  by  a  trans- 
verse series  of  "table  rolls"  closely  set,  and  the  under  part  of 
the  wire  is  held  down  by  stretch  rolls.  Directly  under  the 
top  part,  and  continuing  from  the  breast  roll  for  about  two- 
thirds  the  length  of  the  frame,  is  a  shallow  tray  called  a 
"save-all,"  as  it  catches  all  the  drippings  which  contain 


PAPER-MAKING  47 

filler,  and  some  fine  fibers  which  are  returned  to  the  screens 
by  stuff-pumps,  maintaining  a  continuous  circulation  so  that 
nothing  goes  to  waste.  Into  this  save:all  water  may  be  ad- 
mitted to  regulate  the  consistency  of  the  stuff. 

Near  the  couch  roll  the  wire  passes  over  two  or  three 
suction  boxes,  and  on  top  of  the  wire,  between  the  suction 
boxes,  turns  a  wire-covered  roll  called  a  "dandy." 

On  either  side  of  the  machine  is  a  frame  which  may  be 
contracted  or  expanded.  It  carries  a  series  of  pulleys  over 
which  run  rubber  deckle  straps,  the  under  parts  of  which  rest 
on  the  wire  and  keep  the  wet  pulp  within  bounds.  By  this 
means  the  width  of  the  web  of  paper  is  regulated.  As  a 
little  pulp  leaks  under  these  straps  machine-made  paper  has 
deckle  edges  on  both  sides  of  the  web.  Artificial  deckle 
edges  may  also  be  produced  by  squirting  a  fine  stream  of 
water  upon  the  web  near  the  couch  roll,  but  it  is  not  possible 
to  produce  this  effect  across  the  web.  Except  on  special  papers 
the  deckle  edges  are  trimmed  off  by  slitters  at  the  end  of  the 
machine. 

Near  the  flow  box,  running  at  right  angles  across  the 
machine,  are  two  so-called  "slices"  about  eight  inches  apart. 
These  may  be  adjusted  at  various  heights  from  the  wire,  in 
order  to  regulate  the  thickness  of  the  paper.  Their  most 
important  function  is  to  make  the  thickness  uniform  from 
one  side  to  the  other  of  the  sheet,  and  to  create  a  pond  which 
assists  in  forming  the  paper. 

The  frame  of  the  Fourdrinier  has  a  joint  near  the  first 
suction  box,  and  a  mechanical  arrangement  called  a  "shake" 
is  located  near  the  head  box  to  impart  a  lateral  shaking 
motion  to  the  frame  while  the  wire  runs  straight  ahead,  thus 
imitating  the  shaking  of  the  hand  mold. 

Beyond  the  couch  roll  is  a  series  of  press  rolls,  between 
which  run  endless  felts  to  carry  the  soft,  moist  paper. 

Then  follows  a  large  series  of  steam-heated  cylinders. 
Next  a  stack  of  iron  calender  rolls,  and  a  set  of  reels.  As 
soon  as  one  reel  is  full  a  new  reel  is  started  and  the  paper 


48  PAPER-MAKING 

from  the  first  reel  is  slit  by  rotary  slitters  and  made  up  into 
rolls  of  the  desired  widths  on  the  winder. 

PAPER    IN    PROCESS 

It  is  an  almost  dramatic  moment  when  the  machine  is 
ready  to  start.  The  machine  tender  opens  the  valves  which 
admit  the  stuff  from  the  flow  box  and  a  stream  spreads 
out  onto  the  wire.  At  a  given  signal  the  back  tender  starts 
the  wire,  and  the  endless  white  stream  moves  smartly  for- 
ward. Then  ensues  the  mechanical  imitation  of  making 
paper  by  hand,  only  instead  of  forming  sheet  by  sheet,  the 
formation  is  a  continuous  process  in  the  web.  The  shake 
of  the  machine  mixes  the  position  of  the  fibers  in  the  "pond" 
behind  the  slices;  the  water  runs  like  a  downpour  of  rain 
through  the  moving  wire  into  the  save-all,  leaving  behind 
its  burden  of  fiber,  or  "stuff,"  as  the  mixture  is  at  that 
stage  called,  in  a  white  film. 

The  suction  boxes  accelerate  the  expulsion  of  water,  and 
the  dandy  roll  closes  the  fibers  together  as  the  film  passes 
beneath  it.  Then  the  web  is  carried  between  the  couch  rolls, 
when  the  water  fairly  pours  out  in  the  squeeze.  As  the  top 
roll  is  felt-jacketed,  the  film  sometimes  sticks  to  it,  as  a 
slight  suction  is  created  in  the  pores  of  the  felt.  The  back 
tender  stands  by  with  a  hose  to  wash  down  the  paper  if  it 
starts  to  adhere  to  the  jacket.  The  paper  is  prevented  from 
completely  going  around  this  top  roll  by  a  guard  board 
which  is  fixed  across  the  top.  Many  machines  are  now 
equipped  with  a  "suction  couch  roll,"  which  does  away  with 
the  need  for  a  top  roll,  as  the  water  is  sucked,  instead  of 
pressed,  out  of  the  paper. 

At  a  given  signal  the  back  tender  starts  one  edge  of  the 
film  forward,  by  a  skilful  slap  of  the  hand,  which  picks  up 
the  edge  of  the  film  and  transfers  it  to  the  felt  carrier  between 
the  press  rolls.  The  remainder  of  the  web  is  made  to  follow 
the  lead  of  the  first  section,  till  finally  the  full  width  is 


PAPER-MAKING  49 

transferred  to  the  first  felt,  which  carries  it  through  the 
first  series  of  press  rolls. 

An  arrangement  similar  to  the  guard  board,  called  a 
"doctor,"  runs  across  the  top  press  roll,  so  that  the  paper 
may  be  allowed  to  roll  up  if  desired,  while  the  machine 
tender  regulates  the  flow  of  water  until  the  consistency  of 
the  stuff  is  right.  The  doctor  also  keeps  the  press  roll  clean. 
Quite  often  the  long  end  of  paper  first  started  at  the  couch 
roll  is  passed  right  along  from  the  first  felt  to  the  second, 
carried  through  the  second  set  of  press  rolls,  and  the  third, 
if  three  there  be,  to  the  steam  driers,  and  thence  over  the 
entire  battery  of  driers,  through  the  calenders  onto  the  reel. 

From  the  press  rolls  it  is  led  by  the  back  tender,  assisted 
by  a  third  hand,  and  if  all  goes  well  the  paper  may  be  wind- 
ing up  on  the  reel  inside  of  ten  minutes. 

But  there  is  many  a  chance  for  mishaps  before  the  wet 
end  of  the  machine  is  adjusted  and  the  heat  in  the  driers 
is  regulated  to  a  nicety. 

The  weight  of  the  paper  depends  upon  the  quantity  of 
stuff  let  onto  the  machine,  the  dilution  of  the  stock,  and  the 
speed  at  which  the  machine  is  run.  Given  a  certain  volume, 
the  faster  the  wire  runs  the  thinner  the  stuff  is  spread,  and 
vice  versa.  Before  things  are  settled  down,  considerable 
worthless  paper  may  be  turned  off. 

The  width  of  the  web  is  controlled  by  the  distance  be- 
tween the  deckle  straps.  These  are  adjustable,  but  an  allow- 
ance of  ten  inches  or  so  must  be  made  for  the  shrinkage  of  the 
web  in  drying. 

The  preliminaries  to  a  run  of  paper  may  be  likened  to  the 
make-ready  on  a  printing-press,  though  they  do  not,  as  a  rule, 
last  nearly  so  long.  Yet  this  is  the  reason  why  small  odd  sizes 
and  odd  shades  of  paper  are  not  popular  with  the  manufac- 
turer, unless  he  can  get  a  sufficient  extra  price  to  compensate 
for  the  "make-ready"  costs. 

WATER-MARKS.* — The  water-mark  in  paper  is  effected  by 
raised  lines  on  the  dandy  roll.  The  design,  being  impressed 


50 


PAPER-MAKING 


in  the  moist  web,  displaces  the  fibers  and  leaves  thin  areas  in 
the  paper,  which  consequently  show  when  the  sheet  is  held 
against  the  light,  as  they  are  more  translucent  than  the  ad- 
joining areas. 

*The  study  of  ancient  water-marks  is  quite  fascinating  in  connection 
with  early  Printers'  marks.  See  "A  New  Light  on  the  Renaissance,"  by 
Harold  Bailey. 


FOURDRINIER  MACHINE,  S.  D.  WARREN  &  CO. 
View  showing  the  "Fourdrinier"  part  of  a  modern  book  paper  machine. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

PAPER-MAKING — Continued 

TECHNIQUE.— The  importance  of  the  formation  of 
the  sheet  on  the  machine  wire  is  the  same  as  on 
the  hand  mold,  as  subsequent  pressing  and  calen- 
dering can  only  modify  faulty  formation.  The  stuff  should  be 
uniform  and  even  in  texture.  The  press  rolls  must  be  ground 
with  absolute  accuracy,  and  slightly  crowned  to  allow  for 
their  sagging.  Otherwise  water  would  be  unevenly  expelled 
from  the  web,  possibly  causing  a  damp  streak  throughout 
the  entire  run  of  paper,  which  would  show  in  the  finished 
product. 

If  a  portion  were  pressed  too  hard  it  would  contain  less 
moisture  as  it  reached  the  driers  and  become  dry  before  ad- 
jacent sections.  If  the  paper  were  calendered,  the  moister 
parts  would  take  on  a  smoother  surface  than  the  drier  parts. 

Another  feature  to  be  closely  watched  on  particular 
papers  is  to  eliminate,  as  far  as  possible,  the  impress  of  the 
weave  of  the  wire  cloth,  which  is  left  in  the  under  side  of  the 
web.  This  can  be  accomplished  to  so  fine  a  degree,  by  a  skil- 
ful man,  that  the  difference  between  the  two  sides  of  the 
paper  is  scarcely  discernible.  The  fineness  of  weave  of  the  one 
cloth  also  is  an  important  bearing  in  securing  an  even  sided 
sheet. 

Thus  we  see  that  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  reduce  the 
making  of  paper  to  an  exact  science,  and  a  reasonable  vari- 
ation must  be  expected,  both  in  weight  and  finish.  The 
successful  management  of  a  paper-machine  depends,  from 
start  to  finish,  on  careful,  experienced  judgment  and  alert 
attention.  If  the  beater  man  dilutes  one  batch  of  stuff  more 
than  another,  the  variation  will  show  the  minute  the  altered 
stuff  appears  on  the  machine,  and  only  an  immediate  read- 
justment at  the  wet  end  can  avoid  considerable  variation  in 

f$l) 


52  PAPER-MAKING 

the  product.  Then,  from  end  to  end,  the  long  machine  must 
be  watched  carefully,  so  that  the  pressing,  drying  and  calen- 
dering may  all  be  kept  uniform.  A  bungler  should  find  no 
place  in  the  machine-room,  but  it  is  desirable  that  consumers 
have  sufficient  appreciation  of  human  limitations,  as  applied 
to  paper-making,  to  admit  proper  allowances  for  normal 
variations. 

CYLINDER  MACHINE. — The  cylinder  machine,  invented  by 
John  Dickinson  about  ten  years  after  the  Fourdrinier,  is 
much  the  same  as  the  wet  machine  described  in  Chapter  II, 
with  the  addition  of  press  rolls,  driers  and  calenders.  The 
single-cylinder  machine  is  used  for  making  light-weight 
tissues  and  other  thin  papers.  Cylinder  vats  can  also  be 
arranged  in  series,  as  on  board  machines,  so  that  the  webs 
formed  on  each  cylinder  can  be  combined.  This  is  accom- 
plished by  an  arrangement  of  felts  which  run  tangent  to  the 
cylinders,  picking  off  the  formed  paper  automatically  from 
each  successive  mold. 

The  felt  runs  between  squeeze  rolls,  so  that  the  various 
plies  of  paper  are  pressed  together,  forming  a  single  thick- 
ness. Machines  of  this  type  can  make  very  thick  sheets,  and 
are  used  for  making  bristol  boards,  blanks,  boxboard,  straw- 
board,  etc. 

The  number  and  arrangement  of  driers  on  any  machine 
depends  on  the  product  to  be  derived.  Fast-running  mach- 
ines, such  as  the  large  news  mills  are  equipped  with,  have 
necessarily  a  large  number  of  driers,  as  they  turn  off  fifty 
tons  or  so  a  day  and  require  a  great  drying  capacity.  Slow 
running  machines,  such  as  are  used  in  fine  writing-paper 
mills,  need  a  much  smaller  number,  as  the  average  fine 
writing-paper  machine  produces  little  over  three  or  four 
tons  a  day. 

HARPER  MACHINE. — There  is  a  type  of  Fourdrinier  called 
the  Harper  which  differs  from  it  in  that  it  is  turned  end  for 
end.  A  long  felt  carries  the  paper  from  the  couch  rolls  back 
over  the  Fourdrinier  part,  delivering  it  to  the  first  press. 


PAPER-MAKING 


53 


54  PAPER-MAKING 

This  is  considered  advantageous  in  making  very  light  papers 
which  otherwise  are  with  difficulty  led  from  the  couch  to  the 
press  rolls  and  are  apt  to  break  down  in  the  passage. 

YANKEE  MACHINE. — There  is  even  one  type  of  machine 
known  as  the  "Yankee"  which  has  but  one  drier  of  very 
large  diameter.  This  is  used  in  making  machine-glazed 
wrapping  papers,  which  are  very  smooth  on  the  side  of  the 
sheet  which  comes  in  contact  with  the  drier  and  rough  on  the 
other  side.  The  "wet"  end  of  this  machine  is  a  Fourdriner 
type. 

The  arrangement  and  number  of  smoothing  and  calender 
rolls  is  also  dependent  on  the  class  of  paper  to  be  made. 
Most  writing-paper  machines  have  no  calenders  at  all  as  the 
surface  is  obtained  on  special  machinery  such  as  platers  and 
sheet  calenders  after  the  paper  comes  from  the  drying  loft. 
One  can  easily  appreciate  that,  while  the  general  principles 
of  all  paper-making  are  identical,  there  is  a  call  for  a  wide 
variety  of  arrangements,  such  as  those  cited,  to  meet  the 
varying  requirements  of  different  classes  of  paper. 

SURFACE  SIZING. — Surface  sizing,  or  animal  sizing,  neces- 
sitates a  vat  with  squeeze  rolls.  The  paper  is  first  run  over 
enough  driers  to  dry  it;  then  introduced  into  the  vat  of  hot 
size.  On  the  cheaper  grades  the  size  is  dried  on  the  machine 
by  a  special  skeleton  drying  apparatus,  but  the  better 
grades  are  cut  off  and  piled  up  by  the  "lay-boy"  at  the  end 
of  the  machine,  then  transferred  to  drying  lofts  and  hung  up 
over  poles  to  dry.  Hence  the  term  "loft-dried."  Any 
special  finish  has  then  to  be  applied  sheet  by  sheet. 

FINISHING  PAPER. — Finishing  paper  is  accomplished 
either  on  the  paper-machine  itself,  or  after  the  paper  is 
turned  off  on  the  machine  it  may  be  treated  by  special 
apparatus. 

WOVE  AND  LAID  PAPERS. — A  so-called  wove  paper  is 
made  with  a  plain  dandy,  covered  with  fine  wire  cloth  the 
same  texture  all  over.  Laid  paper  is  really  a  water-marked 
paper,  in  which  the  whole  surface  is  marked  by  a  specially 


PAPER-MAKING  55 

constructed  dandy  which  imprints  a  mark  in  imitation  of 
the  early  hand  molds.  There  are  heavy  lines  running  with 
the  grain  of  the  paper  and  lighter  lines  running  across. 

ANTIQUE. — An  "antique"  surface  is  obtained  by  skip- 
ping the  calender  rolls  and  leaving  the  paper  rough  as  it  comes 
off  the  felt  to  the  driers.  A  medium  finish  is  obtained  by  a 
slight  calendering,  while  the  highest  machine  finish,  and  the 
so-called  English  finish,  is  obtained  by  a  heavy  calendering. 

WATER  FINISH. — A  common  method  of  obtaining  a  high 
finish  on  heavy  papers  is  by  the  use  of  "water  doctors," 
which  keeps  two  or  more  of  the  calender  rolls  moist,  dampen- 
ing the  paper  while  it  is  being  calendered.  The  surface  thus 
imparted  is  called  a  "water  finish." 

SHEET    CALENDERS 

Fine  writing-papers  may  be  finished  in  a  variety  of  ways. 
A  plain,  smoothed  surface  is  obtained  by  passing  the  sheets, 
which  are  automatically  fed,  by  a  system  of  tapes,  through 
calender  stacks,  called  sheet  calenders. 

PLATING. — Plating  was  first  resorted  to  as  a  means  of 
smoothing  paper  in  the  sheet,  but  when  a  linen,  or  pebbled, 
or  any  other  special  finish  is  desired,  it  is  also  accomplished 
in  a  plating  machine.  This  consists  of  two  heavy  rolls. 
The  sheets  of  paper,  with  a  metal  plate  top  and  bottom,  are 
passed  through  the  rolls  under  heavy  pressure.  If  a  linen 
finish  is  desired,  pieces  of  linen  are  placed  between  the  plates 
on  both  sides  of  the  sheets  so  that  the  linen  texture  is  em- 
bossed into  the  paper.  Similarly  any  other  substance  may 
be  used  for  other  effects. 

EMBOSSING. — Embossed  papers  are  usually  finished  from 
the  roll  by  running  between  iron  rolls  with  embossing  pat- 
terns engraved  upon  them.  An  extra  strength  is  required  of 
paper  for  this  purpose,  otherwise  the  pattern  will  cut  through 
the  sheet. 

SUPERCALENDERING. — Supcrcalenders  are  machines, 
apart  from  the  paper-machine  itself,  for  making  high-finished 


56  PAPER-MAKING 

T>aper.  The  rolls  vary  in  number.  Each  alternate  roll  is 
made  of  hard  paper.  In  treating  uncoated  stock  there  are 
also  one  or  two  steam  boxes  to  moisten  the  paper  before  it  is 
calendered.  This  softens  the  surface  fibers,  and  they  can 
then  be  rolled  flatter  and  hence  take  a  shinier  surface.  The 
alternate  rolls  in  a  stack  for  calendering  coated  papers  are 
made  of  cotton,  and  no  steam  boxes  can  be  used,  because 
the  moisture  would  injure  the  coating. 

The  paper  is  run  through  the  calenders  in  the  web.  All 
smooth,  or  special,  finishes  are  gained  only  at  added  cost. 
Where  the  process  takes  place  on  the  machine,  more  breakage 
is  occasioned  and  more  paper  has  to  be  sorted  out,  as  the 
hard-finishing  accentuates  spots  in  the  paper,  and  little 
lumps  of  fibers,  which  would  pass  unnoticed  in  an  uncalen- 
dered  or  antique  paper,  are  squashed  down  and  blackened 
by  calendering.  Hence  the  higher  cost  of  such  papers. 

Supercalendering  and  plating  bring  into  play  different 
workman,  so  that  the  labor  cost  is  increased,  and  any  finish- 
ing, sheet  by  sheet,  is  necessarily  slow  and  more  costly  than 
that  accomplished  in  a  continuous  process  from  the  roll. 

COMBINING. — Many  kinds  of  papers,  as  photo-mounts, 
double-thick  covers  and  cardboards,  are  made  by  pasting 
two  or  more  thicknesses  together.  This  was  formerly  done 
in  the  sheet,  but  most  of  the  pasting  is  now  effected  in  the 
web.  The  papers  are  run  over  a  paste  roll,  combined,  and 
passed  either  through  a  drying  chamber  or  over  a  battery  of 
driers  like  those  of  the  paper  machine.  The  pasted  paper  is 
lastly  made  into  rolls  and  taken  to  the  finishing  room  to  be 
sheeted. 

COATED  PAPERS. — Coated  papers  are  made  by  covering 
the  surface  of  ordinary  paper  with  a  veneer  of  clay,  mixed 
with  some  adhesive,  as  casein  or  glue,  and  suitably  colored. 

The  process  is  done  from  the  roll;  the  paper  first  goes 
through  the  machine  where  the  liquid  coating  is  brushed  onto 
the  surface,  passing  directly  in  automatically  formed  festoons 
through  a  long,  heated  room  to  dry,  and  finally  is  rewound. 


PAPER-MAKING 


57 


The  rolls  are  then  taken  to  the  super-calender  room  and  the 
paper  is  given  the  desired  finish. 

Dull-finish  coated  papers  require  a  special  kind  of  coating 
and  receive  very  light  calendering  after  being  coated. 

High-finished  coated  papers  of  the  best  grades  are  double- 
coated  and  run  several  times  through  the  calenders. 

Another  method  of  producing  a  high  finish  is  known  as 
"flinting."  In  this  process  the  paper  is  mechanically  polished 
by  smooth  flint  stones  and  gains  a  very  high  luster.  Such 
papers  are  most  widely  used  as  box  covering.  A  similar 
effect  is  obtained  by  friction  calenders,  which  consist  of 
two  chilled  iron  rolls  with  an  intermediate  roll  of  hard  paper. 
The  top^roll  rotates  at  a  higher  speed  than  the  others. 

The  coating  may  be  dyed  to  any  color  desired,  so  that 


COATING  ROOM,  ATPLETON  COATED  PAPER  CO. 

This  view  of  the  "wet  end"  of  the  coating  machines  shows  the  rolls 
going  through  the  coating  process,  the  web  of  paper  traveling  along  the 
drying  racks  appears  in  the  background. 


58 


PAPER-MAKING 


C    •- 


C  ^ 


P.  I 


PAPER-MAKING  59 

coated  and  glazed  papers  are  obtainable  in  a  wide  variety  of 
shades. 

GUMMED  PAPERS. — Gummed  papers  are  made  by  pass- 
ing the  web  through  a  machine,  which  coats  it  with  glue, 
after  wThich  it  passes  over  drying  apparatus  and  is  wound 
into  rolls  ready  for  finishing. 

Gummed  paper  for  labels  is  usually  finished  in  sheets, 
while  for  sealing  tape  and  box  stays  it  is  ordinarily  made  up 
into  rolls. 

WAXED  PAPERS. — Waxed  papers  are  made  by  applying 
a  coating  of  parrafin.  This  renders  the  stock  water  proof, 
and  it  is  used  largely  as  a  wrapper  for  food  products. 

GLASSINE  PAPER. — By  a  special  treatment  in  the  beaters 
and  jordans  cellulose  fiber  is  so  treated  as  to  become  hydrat- 
ed.  This  hydration  makes  the  paper  produced  grease 
proof,  and  by  heavy  supercalendering  the  character  of  the 
sheet  is  again  greatly  altered,  it  becoming  almost  perfectly 
transparent.  In  this  state  it  makes  a  most  attractive  and 
hygiene  wrapper. 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  ASPECTS  OF  PAPER 

Y  •  HHE  size  and  weight  of  a  sheet  of  paper  of  any  given 
quality  and  finish  are  its  most  obvious  features,  and 
when  we  speak  of  the  weight  of  a  sheet  of  paper 
we  refer  not  to  the  one  sheet,  but  to  the  weight  of  one 
ream  of  similar  sheets.  Most  papers  are  ordered  on  a  basis 
of  ream  weight  for  a  specified  size,  as,  for  example,  25  by  38, 
50-pound.  Blanks,  cardboards  and  cover-papers,  especially 
the  first  two,  are  more  frequently  ordered  on  a  basis  of  bulk, 
as  two-ply,  three-ply,  etc.,  and  thick  or  double  thick  in  the 
case  of  covers.  The  thinner  covers  are  usually  designated 
by  their  ream  weight,  though  frequently  quoted,  as  are  the 
heavy-weight  covers,  the  blanks  and  cardboards,  in  price 
by  the  hundred  sheets. 

The  reason  for  this  difference  is  probably  that  such  stocks 
are  sold  in  comparatively  small  lots,  so  that  it  is  simpler 
to  bill  them  in  accordance  with  the  number  of  sheets  than  to 
figure  the  weight  of  a  small  number  of  sheets  and  multiply 
by  the  pound  price. 

Another  thing  which  facilitates  the  system  is  that  these 
kinds  of  paper  are  carried  in  standard  stock  sizes,  as  the 
majority  of  orders  are  too  small  to  be  made  in  special  sizes. 

The  relation  between  thickness  and  weight  of  a  given 
paper  is  approximately  a  direct  ratio.  For  example,  given  a 
sheet  of  machine  finish  25  by  38,  50-pound,  four  sheets  of 
which  bulk  .011  of  an  inch,  the  bulk  of  the  same  finish  and 
quality  in  25  by  38,  60-pound,  can  be  approximately  as- 
certained by  the  equation  50  :  .011  ::  60  :  x,  the  answer  of 
which  is  .0132. 

The  difference  in  bulk  between  two  papers  of  the  same 
weight  depends  on : 

1.     The  finish. 

(60) 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  ASPECTS  OF  PAPER  61 

2.  The  percentage  of  mineral  filler. 

3.  The  nature  and  treatment  of  the  fiber. 

For  example,  on  a  bulk  of  .015  of  an  inch  to  four  sheets  a 
super-calendered  paper  would  weigh  about  65  pounds,  a 
high  machine  finish  about  60  pounds,  a  text  or  medium 
finish  about  50  pounds,  an  antique  about  40  pounds.  In 
other  words,  the  density  of  any  given  piece  of  paper  is  pro- 
portionate to  the  amount  of  calendering  it  receives.  Natur- 
ally, the  antique  paper,  lightly  pressed  and  uncalendered,  is 
loose  for  texture  and  full  of  minute  air  pockets,  so  that  it  is 
light  for  bulk,  while  the  supercalendered  paper  is  squeezed 
to  a  hard,  dense  sheet  containing  little  air  space. 

If  the  proportion  of  mineral  filler  is  great,  the  weight  will 
be  still  greater  in  proportion  to  the  bulk,  as  the  specific 
gravity  of  the  mineral  is  greater  than  that  of  the  fiber,  and 
the  fine  particles  tend  to  fill  completely  the  small  interstices 
between  the  fibers,  so  that  the  air  space  is  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum. If,  in  addition,  a  surface  coating  is  added,  we  get  a 
paper  with  the  highest  possible  percentage  of  filler,  and  con- 
sequently a  glazed  coated  paper  has  less  bulk  in  proportion 
to  its  weight  than  any  other  kind.  Such  paper  contains  from 
30  to  40  percent  of  mineral. 

The  nature  of  the  fiber  brings  about  a  difference,  in  that 
some  fibers  have  thicker  walls  and  smaller  canals  than  others. 
The  treatment  causes  a  variation,  in  that  a  quick  beating 
with  sharp  knives  leaves  the  fibers  more  nearly  in  their 
original  shape  than  a  prolonged  beating  with  dull  knives, 
which  breaks  down  the  structure  of  the  fibers  and  draws  them 
out  into  minute  fabrillae. 

The  strength  of  a  paper  of  given  quality  will  also  to  a 
certain  extent  be  proportionate  to  the  duration  of  beating, 
as  well  as  the  amount  of  pressing  and  calendering  received. 
The  amount  of  sizing  and  the  drying  also  affect  its  strength. 

An  antique  paper,  having  large  air  spaces  and  loosely 
knit  as  it  is,  has  not  the  tensile  strength  it  would  possess  if 
pressed  and  calendered  to  a  greater  density. 


62  THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  ASPECTS  OF  PAPER 

The  addition  of  loading  adds  to  the  weight  without  in- 
creasing the  strength,  as  it  has  no  binding  properties.  More- 
over, the  bulk,  in  proportion  to  the  weight,  is  lessened  by  the 
introduction  of  filler. 

Consequently  it  is  axiomatic,  that  of  two  given  papers  of 
equal  weight,  finish  and  quality  of  fiber,  the  one  containing 
the  less  filler  will  be  the  stronger,  as  well  as  bulkier.  The 
addition  of  filler,  however,  increases  the  opacity,  gives  mel- 
lowness, and  improves  the  printing  quality  by  equalizing  the 
texture  of  the  surface. 

The  addition  of  sizing  tends  to  increase  the  strength  of 
paper,  owing  to  its  adhesive  properties,  but  if  liberally  used 
it  detracts  from  the  mellowness  and  gives  the  sheet  a  tinny 
"character." 

The  length  of  the  fiber  also  affects  the  strength,  as  long 
fibers  give  greater  strength  and  better  folding  quality  than 
short.  It  is  not  possible  to  get  as  close  formation  with  long- 
as  with  short  fibers. 

Hence  occasions  frequently  arise  wherein  customers  ask 
for  characteristics  which  are  somewhat  contradictory. 

A  desires  a  light,  bulky  paper  with  a  high  finish,  but  a 
bulky  paper  with  high  finish  must,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
be  heavy. 

B  desires  a  very  strong,  thin,  but  opaque  paper.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  strength  of  a  thin,  opaque  paper  can  be  but 
a  relative  factor,  while  thinness  and  opacity  are  irreconcilable 
features. 

C  inquires  for  a  closely  formed  sheet,  with  good  folding 
qualities,  but  the  first  characteristic  is  only  to  be  gained  at 
the  expense  of  the  latter. 

D  wishes  to  print  half-tones  on  an  antique  paper.  In 
this  case  modern  printing  inventions  have  bridged  over  some 
of  the  obstacles  of  the  past,  and  the  offset  press  and  extra- 
deep  engravings  have  brought  this  last  requirement  within 
the  realms  of  possibility,  but  unless  resort  is  had  to  these  new 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  ASPECTS  OF  PAPER  63 

methods,  the  requirements  again  are  irreconcilable  to  each 
other. 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  only  through  technical  paper 
information  can  one  solve  such  problems  as  necessitate  a 
compromise  capable  of  giving  the  maximum  possible  satis- 
faction. 

The  structure  of  paper,  machine  made,  results  in  the 
greater  proportion  of  the  fibers  in  the  formed  sheet  lying  in 
the  direction  of  the  flow  of  the  stuff.  This  determines 
what  is  called  the  "grain"  of  the  paper.  When  paper  is  in  the 
roll  the  grain  of  course  is  lengthwise  of  the  web,  but  in  the 
sheet  the  cutting  and  slitting  may  be  arranged  so  as  to  leave 
the  grain  either  lengthwise  or  crosswise  of  the  sheet.  This 
is  an  important  consideration  for  a  number  of  reasons. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  easier  to  tear  the  paper  with  the 
grain  than  across,  as  the  fibers  are  parted  rather  than 
fractured  in  this  way.  This  is  a  point  which  might  be  utilized 
by  printers  when  printing  detachable  coupons. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  consideration  is  the  great 
difference  in  folding  qualities.  Many  a  paper  will  fold  very 
nicely  with  the  grain  and  crack  badly  if  folded  the  other  way. 

Again,  a  great  difference  is  noticeable  in  the  flexibility  of 
books,  dependent  largely  on  whether  the  grain  runs  parallel 
or  at  right  angles  to  the  binding.  If  flexibility  is  desired, 
the  grain  should  run  parallel  to  the  back  of  the  binding. 
Occasionally  a  wide-paged  pamphlet,  especially  of  light- 
weight paper,  is  improved  by  the  rigidity  to  be  gained  from 
having  the  fibers  run  at  right  angles  to  the  binding.  It  is  also 
true  that  this  increases  the  strength  of  the  binding,  as  the 
sewing  or  wire  stitching  passes  around  more  fibers  than  if  the 
grain  ran  up  and  down  the  page. 

Not  infrequently  does  the  middle  signature  of  a  pam- 
phlet pull  loose  from  the  binding.  Usually  in  such  cases  the 
paper  is  not  strong  anyway,  but  it  could  have  had  more 
resistance  had  the  grain  run  at  right  angles  to  the  binding. 


64  THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  ASPECTS  OF  BAPER 

The  tensile  strength  of  a  strip  of  paper  is  greater  with  the 
grain,  but  its  elasticity  is  greater  across  the  grain. 

A  convenient  way  to  ascertain  the  direction  of  the  grain 
in  papers  that  do  not  show  it  clearly  by  folding  is  to  cut  two 
narrow  strips  a  few  inches  long,  hold  them  by  one  end  so  that 
they  coincide.  When  held  horizontally,  if  the  loose  ends  do 
not  part,  it  indicates  that  the  lower  paper  has  its  grain  in  the 
long  dimension.  If  the  lower  paper  has  its  grain  crosswise, 
the  loose  end  will  sag  away  from  the  top  strip,  because,  as 
above  remarked,  a  paper  is  more  flexible  across  the  grain. 
This  test  may  be  applied  either  to  sized  or  unsized  papers. 

Another  test  is  to  cut  a  small  square  and  moisten  one 
side;  the  paper  will  curl  into  a  little  cylinder  and  the  grain 
runs  parallel  to  the  length  of  the  cylinder.  This  test  can- 
not be  applied  to  an  unsized  paper. 

This  leads  us  to  a  consideration  of  the  effects  of  moisture 
and  humidity  on  paper. 

It  will  be  recalled  from  the  chapter  on  Paper-Making 
(No.  VI)  how  plastic  paper  is  in  its  moist  stage,  and  how 
tenacious  of  water  are  the  cellulose  fibers.  It  will  also  be 
recalled  that  there  is  considerable  shrinkage  across  the  web 
of  the  paper  from  the  time  it  leaves  the  wire  to  the  moment 
it  is  reeled.  In  fact,  the  very  thing  which  makes  paper- 
making  a  possibility  is  the  shrinking  of  each  individual  fiber, 
occasioned  by  the  expulsion  and  evaporation  of  the  water, 
which  has  served  as  a  carrier  from  the  machine  chest  to  the 
wet  end  of  the  machine. 

This  propensity  of  each  individual  fiber  does  not  cease 
when  the  paper  is  made,  but  persists  forever.  A  cellulose 
fiber  will  absorb  moisture  from  the  air  in  proportion  to  the 
relation  humidity,  just  as  the  hair  in  a  barometer  is  con- 
tinually shrinking  or  expanding  as  the  weather  changes. 

A  definite  percentage  of  moisture  is  normal  to  a  cellulose 
fiber  in  proportion  to  the  moisture  in  the  air.  The  fiber 
swells  as  it  absorbs,  and  shrinks  as  it  gives  off  water. 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  ASPECTS  OF  PAPER  65 

Herzberg  gives  as  the  results  of  investigation  with  a  good 
writing-paper  made  of  rags,  sized  with  rosin,  the  following 
report  of  the  percentage  of  moisture  retained  under  various 
degrees  of  relative  humidity : 

Relative  humidity  Moisture  contained 

of  the  air,  in  the  paper, 

percentage  percentage 

100  21.5 

90  13.5 

80  8.9 

70  8.4 

60  6.5 

50  5.6 

40  3.4 

30  2.3 

In  a  sheet  of  paper,  where  thousands  of  fibers  lie  side  by 
side,  the  combined  expansion  is  distinctly  noticeable  in  the 
changing  dimensions  of  the  sheet.  This  gives  rise  to  diffi- 
culties in  securing  accurate  register  in  color-printing,  owing 
to  atmospheric  changes.  The  manufacturer  may  minimize 
this  difficulty  by  a  careful  formation  of  the  paper  and  the 
regulation  of  the  drying,  so  as  to  turn  out  the  paper  as  nearly 
as  possible  containing  an  average  normal  percentage  of 
moisture. 

The  same  conditions  are  responsible  for  wavy  edges, 
which  occur  principally  along  the  cross-grain  dimension  of 
the  sheets.  The  ends  of  the  fibers,  being  exposed,  easily 
absorb  moisture  as  paper  lies  in  a  pile,  but  the  moisture 
seldom  permeates  more  than  a  few  inches  into  the  pile. 
Therfore,  the  larger  part  of  each  sheet  is  unaffected,  but  the 
fibers  exposed  to  the  air  expand  when  absorbing  moisture 
increasing  the  area  of  the  exposed  end  and,  consequently, 
causing  it  to  assume  a  wavy  formation  which  is  suggestive 
of  a  ruffle. 

When  feeding  such  sheets  to  a  cylinder  press,  much 
trouble  may  arise  if  the  waves  occur  along  the  "gripper 
edge,"  which  is  usually  on  the  longer  dimension  of  the  sheet. 
In  some  instances  the  difficulty  may  be  avoided  by  ordering 


66 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  ASPECTS  OF  PAPER 


paper  with  the  grain  running  the  long  way  of  the  sheet,  which 
also  offers  another  advantage  in  relation  to  securing  close 
register,  namely  this:  the  area  of  the  sheet  in  square  inches 
will  increase  least  through  atmospheric  expansion  which 
occurs  across  the  grain  if  the  cross-grain  dimension  is  the 
lesser. 


SUPERCALENDER   STACKS,   APPLETON   COATED   PAPER   CO. 

For  a  description  of  the  Super-calendering  process,  see  pages  55  and  56 


CHAPTER  NINE 

APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER 

THE  appraisal  of  a  specimen  of  paper  differs  from  test- 
ing in  that  an  appraisal  comprehends  the  value  of  an 
object  in  relation  to  its  usefulness  and  marketability, 
whereas  testing  is  merely  an  arbitrary  method  of  expressing 
the  chemical  or  physical  properties  of  the  object.  The  knack 
of  appraising  can  be  acquired  only  through  practical  experi- 
ence; and  the  ability  to  make  tests  is  gained  only  by  careful 
technical  training. 

In  the  majority  of  cases  a  satisfactory  appraisal  may  be 
given  without  chemical  or  physical  tests,  but  these  are  cases 
when  the  superficial  characteristics,  such  as  color,  finish,  feel, 
etc.,  are  the  prime  qualifications,  and  such  considerations  as 
fiber  contents,  freedom  from  impurties,  exact  tensile  strength 
etc.,  are  of  negligible  importance. 

Although  experience,  only,  leads  to  the  knack  of  apprais- 
ing paper,  certain  points  might  be  suggested  with  benefit  to 
the  beginner  which  would  assist  him  to  an  earlier  acquirement 
of  the  art. 

COLOR. — Color  being  a  purely  relative  term  as  applied 
to  the  variations  in  so-called  "white"  papers,  it  is  necessary 
to  make  comparisons  with  accepted  standards  of  the  various 
grades  in  order  to  arrive  at  conclusions. 

In  common  parlance,  white  papers  may  be  described  as 
natural,  light  natural,  white,  blue-white,  pink-white.  Nat- 
ural papers  are  those  in  which  a  minimum  of  artificial  coloring 
has  been  added,  and  the  brilliancy  of  shade  depends  entirely 
upon  the  quality  of  the  stock. 

Almost  all  paper  is  colored  to  some  degree  while  the 
stock  is  in  the  beater,  and  the  minimum  quantity  of  order 
of  paper,  which  any  mill  will  make  on  a  special  run  is  usually 
limited  by  the  contents  of  one  beater,  and,  on  account  of  the 

(67) 


68  APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER 

time  required  to  wash  up,  the  cost  of  special  colors  is  increas- 
ed. Rose-pink  and  blue  are  the  colors  used  in  modifying 
the  natural  color  of  any  beater  of  pulp  to  produce  a  white 
paper.  The  so-called  "white  color"  of  the  cheaper  grades 
of  papers  is  ordinarily  gained  by  a  comparatively  heavy 
use  of  blue,  and  by  comparison  with  a  white  paper  of  good 
quality  the  blueness  is  decidedly  noticeable.  In  judging 
color,  it  is  well  not  only  to  look  at  the  surface,  but  also  to 
examine  the  paper  when  held  up  against  the  light,  making 
comparison  with  some  acceptable  standard,  also  noting  the 
clearness  of  the  stock,  as  indicated  by  the  sharpness  of  de- 
finition of  the  shadows  of  the  fingers  which  hold  the  sheet. 
This  comparison  is  affected,  of  course,  by  the  bulk  of  the 
paper,  but  two  papers  of  about  equal  bulk  may  be  fairly 
compared  in  this  way.  Any  judgment  as  to  shade  is,  in  part, 
only  a  question  of  taste.  Permanency  of  color  may  easily  be 
determined  by  exposing  a  portion  of  a  sheet  to  sunlight  for 
a  few  hours  and  noting  any  alteration  in  color. 

FORMATION. — While  examining  a  paper  for  color  and 
clearness,  the  formation  of  the  sheet  should  also  be  observed. 
In  general,  a  close,  even  formation  is  to  be  desired.  Fibers 
of  the  same  approximate  length  may  be  loosely  or  evenly 
formed,  according  to  the  skill  of  the  machine-tender.  The 
longer  the  fiber,  the  harder  it  it  to  get  a  close,  even  forma- 
tion, and  it  should  be  remembered  that  these  two  qualifica- 
tions are  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  contradictory. 

FINISH. — Whatever  the  finish  of  paper,  the  two  sides  of 
an  ideal  sheet  would  look  exactly  the  same.  In  most  papers 
made  on  a  Fourdrinier  machine  the  impress  of  the  wire  is 
discernible,  and  there  is  a  perceptible  difference  in  texture 
between  the  "wire,"  or  bottom,  side  and  the  "felt,"  or  top, 
side,  the  one  tending  to  reproduce  the  texture  of  the  wire 
cloth,  and  the  other  the  weave  of  the  felts. 

Some  manufacturers  have  perfected  their  processes  to  a 
degree  that  renders  these  differences  imperceptible.  Papers 
made  on  cylinder  machines  of  more  than  one  vat  are  apt  to 


APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER  69 

be  more  even-sided,  as  the  contact  with  the  wire  of  the  molds 
is  less  protracted  and  there  is  considerable  pressing  of  the 
web  between  two  felts  as  it  is  carried  along. 

The  evenness  of  the  finish,  and  the  fineness  of  texture 
over  all  parts  of  a  sheet,  may  best  be  judged  by  holding  it 
aslant  to  the  light.  This  also  discloses  whether  the  paper  is 
* 'fuzzy"  or  free  from  lint. 

Fuzz,  or  hairiness,  usually  occurs  on  the  wire  side  of  the 
sheet.  This  is  due  partially  to  the  stock,  soda  pulp  being 
especially  likely  to  fuzz.  It  is  also  due  to  overdrying,  and 
sometimes  to  the  action  of  the  suction  boxes,  which  if  worked 
too  hard  cause  the  surface  fibers  to  stand  on  end. 

"Hairiness,"  or  fuzz  is  more  apt  to  occur  on  antique  and 
other  light  finishes,  but  calendering  will  not  entirely  over- 
come it,  and  such  papers  as  would  be  fuzzy  uncalendered, 
become  fuzzy  with  handling. 

In  fact,  the  durability  of  the  surface  may  well  be  tested  by 
rubbing  the  paper  between  the  fingers.  In  this  way,  too,  one 
judges  the  "feel,"  which  of  all  qualities  of  paper  is  perhaps 
the  most  difficult  to  express,  but  usually  described  as  hard, 
soft,  mellow,  harsh,  rough,  smooth. 

In  highly  calendered  papers,  well  closed  and  evenly 
finished,  the  light  will  be  reflected  uniformly,  as  from  a  well- 
polished  table-top;  but  if  the  formaton  is  "wild,"  there  will 
be  a  blotchy  look  as  the  small  knots  of  unevenly  distributed 
fibers  cause  thick  and  thin  areas,  and  the  thick  ones  get  nard- 
er  squeezing  through  the  calender  rolls  and,  consequently,  a 
higher  finish. 

Another  cause  for  unevenness  in  finish  is  a  variation  in 
the  thickness  of  the  paper  as  it  is  made  on  the  machine. 
This  unevenness  runs  lengthwise  in  streaks,  and  may  origi- 
nate on  the  wet  end  of  the  machine  if  the  pulp  is  not  depos- 
ited uniformly. 

Again,  the  pressing  may  be  faulty  at  the  press  rolls,  caus- 
ing a  thin  streak.  Naturally,  the  thin  part  of  the  paper  dries 
more  readily  than  the  thick,  and  as  even  surfacing  depends 


70  APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER 

partly  upon  even  dissemination  of  moisture  in  the  sheet,  a 
poorly  pressed  sheet  would  have  a  faulty  finish.  Dirty  felts 
also  cause  uneven  drying,  as  water  can  not  be  evenly  squeezed 
through  a  felt  the  pores  of  which  are  partially  choked.  Lastly 
the  unevenness  may  be  caused  by  the  calender  rolls  them- 
selves being  in  poor  condition. 

It  is  easy  to  detect  thin  areas  by  examining  paper  in  a 
pile,  as  a  pile  of  papers  of  uniform  thickness  will  be  prac- 
tically level  on  top. 

Papers  for  half-tone  printing,  whether  coated  or  uncoated, 
should  be  even  in  formation,  thickness  and  surface,  otherwise 
the  printer's  "make-ready,"  which  is  designed  to  offset  in- 
equalities in  the  plates,  will  be  discounted  by  inequalities 
in  the  paper. 

There  are  some  special  papers  in  which  unevenness  in 
formation  and  finish  are  intentional,  on  account  of  the  un- 
usual effects  thus  gained;  and  other  papers,  such  as  wrapp- 
ings, where  such  niceties  of  the  paper-makers'  art  are  of 
little  importance. 

OPACITY. — Opacity  may  easily  be  judged,  although  it  is 
difficult  to  express  it  in  any  accurate  terms,  by  placing  the 
papers  to  be  compared  side  by  side  over  a  printed  page,  the 
relative  merits  in  this  respect  may  be  immediately  perceived. 

SIZING. — Sizing  may  be  approximately  judged  by  mois- 
tening the  stock  and  noting  the  rapidity  of  the  absorption, 
or  tested  by  drawing  lines  with  ink  and  watching  to  see  if 
they  spread  afterward.  Absorbency  in  blotting-papers  may 
be  measured  by  submerging  two  strips  equally  and  noting 
how  high  the  ink  is  drawn  up  into  the  strips.  Such  papers  as 
are  made  without  any  sizing  and  are  ordinarily  called  "water- 
leaf." 

The  sizing  of  coated  papers  should  be  neutral,  but  is  fre- 
quently alkaline  or  acid,  since  alkali  is  used  to  neutralize 
the  lactic  acid  of  the  casein.  This  may  be  detected  by 
taste.  The  retention  of  a  piece  of  coated  paper  in  the 


APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER  71 

mouth  for  a  few  minutes  will  reveal  through  the  taste  any 
tendency  of  the  coating  to  sour. 

WEIGHT  AND  BULK. — Weight  and  bulk  may  be  closely 
approximated  by  a  practiced  hand,  but  they  must  also  be 
considered  in  relation  to  finish,  as  pointed  out  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter. 

There  are  many  convenient  forms  of  micrometer  gauges 
for  measuring  the  thickness  of  paper  and  any  one  who  has 
much  to  do  with  paper  should  be  provided  with  one,  as  it  is 
unsafe  to  depend  entirely  upon  judgment  when  a  thousandth 
part  of  an  inch  may  account  for  ten  pounds  difference  in  the 
weight  of  a  ream  of  paper  or  cause  serious  variations  in  the 
bulk  of  a  book. 

QUALITY  AND  STRENGTH. — Quality  and  strength  may  be 
approximately  judged  by  tearing  the  paper  in  both  directions 
of  the  grain  and  observing  the  fractured  fibers,  but  these 
matters  are  to  be  more  accurately  estimated  by  mechanical 
and  chemical  tests. 

It  will  be  observed  that  cleanliness  in  paper,  and  most  of 
the  foregoing  characteristics  of  paper,  do  not  lend  them- 
selves to  mechanical  tests,  but  are  properties  which  require 
the  judgment  of  an  expert. 

CARDBOARDS. — In  judging  thick  papers,  such  as  bristol 
boards,  it  is  customary  to  see  if  they  are  snappy.  An  idea  of 
their  fibrous  strength  may  be  had  by  folding  in  various 
directions.  Pasted  cardboards  may  be  distinguished  from 
unpasted  by  burning,  for  if  paste  has  been  used  the  layers  of 
paper  will  split  apart  as  the  paper  burns.  This  burning  will 
also  give  a  slight  idea  of  the  amount  of  filler  in  the  stock,  as 
the  ash  will  be  greater  as  the  filler  is  increased. 

PAPER-TESTING. — Tests  applicable  to  paper  may  be 
divided  into  three  classes  —  microscopical,  physical  and 
chemical. 

The  purpose  of  microscopical  tests  is  to  determine  the 
kind  and  character  of  the  fibers,  and  the  proportion  of  each 


72  APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER 

kind,  also  to  assist  in  determining  the  nature  of  mineral  filler 
and  of  impurities.  It  is  also  used  in  estimating  the  percent- 
ages of  the  various  kinds  of  fiber.  Chemists  are  able  to 
estimate  this  within  five  per  cent.  A  minute  sample  of 
paper  is  prepared  by  boiling  in  a  one  per  cent  solution  of 
sodium  hydroxid,  in  order  to  remove  everything  from  the 
fibers  themselves.  The  resulting  mite  of  pulp  is  placed  on  a 
slide  with  a  dissecting  needle,  the  excess  moisture  is  removed 
and  a  stain  is  added.  This  stain  gives  different  characteris- 
tic hues  to  the  different  kinds  of  fibers.  The  color  and  form 
of  the  fibers  as  observed  through  the  microscope  disclose 
their  character  to  the  trained  eye. 

By  counting  the  different  kinds  of  fibers  under  observa- 
tion, the  analyst  estimates  the  proportions  in  which  they  ex- 
isted in  the  sample  of  paper. 

The  physical  tests  are  more  familiar  to  most  persons,  and 
include  (1)  weight  per  ream,  (2)  thickness,  (3)  bursting 
strength,  (4)  tensile  strength,  (5)  folding  endurance,  (6) 
absorption,  (7)  expansion. 

1. — There  are  two  kinds  of  paper-scales.  The  most 
common  kind  gives,  directly,  the  ream  weight  from  weighing 
a  single  sheet,  and  is  of  such  convenience  that  almost  all 
paper-users  could  well  afford  to  have  one. 

Sensitive  paper-scales  for  small  samples,  4  by  4  inches  in 
size,  are  of  great  assistance  also,  and  should  form  part  of  the 
equipment  of  every  paper-dealer. 

2. — The  thickness  is  determined  by  a  micrometer  gauge 
measuring  to  one-thousandth  of  an  inch.  In  gauging  thin 
papers  it  will  prove  more  accurate  to  take  four  thicknesses, 
as  the  error  in  reading  is  thus  quartered.  The  following 
table  of  bulks,  which  shows  the  number  of  pages  per  inch 
from  a  gauge  of  four  sheets,  will  be  found  convenient : 


APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER 


73 


Thickness  of  four 
sheets  in  thousandths 

Number  of 
pages  to 
one  inch. 

Thickness  of  four 
sheets  in  thousandths 

Number  of 
pages  to 
one  inch 

8 

1,000 

19}/2 

410 

83^           

941 

20 

400 

9           

889 

203/6 

390 

$Y2       

842 

21 

381 

10  

800 

213/6 

372 

103/£  

762 

22 

364 

11  

727 

223^ 

356 

113^  

696 

23  

348 

12 

667 

23  y> 

340 

12^ 

640 

24 

333 

13.  .    . 

615 

24  H 

326 

13% 

593 

25 

320 

14  

571 

25  3/2 

314 

14H  

552 

26 

308 

15  

533 

261/9 

302 

15%  

516 

27 

296 

16  

500 

273^ 

291 

\sy2  

485 

28 

286 

17 

471 

281^ 

281 

ny2  

457 

29 

276 

18. 

444 

2914 

271 

183^  

432 

30 

267 

19  

421 

301/2-  

262 

3. — Bursting  strength  is  determined  by  a  variety  of 
testing-machines,  constructed  so  as  to  record  the  pressure 
per  square  inch  which  may  fie  exerted  before  rupturing  the 
paper. 

In  a  government  bulletin,  Report  No.  89,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  the  following  criticisms  of  this 
test  are  made:  "This  pressure  is  generally  believed  to  rep- 
resent the  mean  strength  of  the  paper — that  is,  an  average 
of  the  strength  across  and  with  the  sheet.  This  is  not  true 
however,  experience  indicating  that  strength  as  thus  deter- 
mined more  nearly  agrees  with  the  strength  of  the  paper  in 
the  cross  direction,  with  the  minimum  strength  rather  than 
with  the  average  strength  of  the  paper. 

"Among  other  objections  to  testers  of  this  type,  is  that  to 
a  certain  extent  the  operator  can  influence  the  results  at  will, 


74  APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER 

and  even  with  the  greatest  care  there  is  quite  a  wide  difference 
between  different  tests  of  the  same  paper." 

4. — Tensile  strength  is  determined  by  clamping  a  strip 
of  paper  of  standard  dimensions  in  a  machine  which  exerts 
a  uniform  tension  until  the  strip  breaks.  The  breaking 
strength  is  shown  on  the  recorder,  and  the  amount  of  stretch 
before  breaking  is  also  registered,  thus  indicating  the  elasti- 
city of  the  paper.  The  best  known  instrument  of  this  sort 
is  the  "Schopper,"  but  the  machine  is  very  costly,  hence  is 
rarely  found  except  in  well-equipped  laboratories. 

5. — Folding  endurance  is  determined  on  a  machine  which 
folds  a  strip  of  paper  back  and  forth  in  a  slot,  the  strip  being- 
clamped  at  either  end  to  a  spring  device  which  maintains  a 
uniform  tension.  The  number  of  double  folds  which  the 
strip  withstands  is  automatically  registered.  This  test  is 
favorably  regarded  as  an  indicator  of  durability,  but  the 
apparatus  is  expensive  and  not  easily  available,  hence  this 
test  fails  of  frequent  use. 

6. — The  absorption  tests  are  applied  principally  to 
blotting-paper,  and  consist  in  suspending  equal  widths  of 
paper  so  their  ends  are  submerged  in  a  beaker  of  colored 
water.  The  height  the  water  rises  in  a  given  time  demon- 
strates the  capillary  attraction. 

7. — Expansion  is  estimated  by  taking  strips  of  uniform 
dimension,  dipping  in  water  and  measuring  the  expansion. 

Chemical  tests  are  for  the  determination  of  (1)  the  per- 
centage of  mineral  filler;  (2)  the  percentage  and  nature  of 
sizing  materials;  (3)  qualitative  test  for  starch,  acid,  sulphur, 
chlorine,  glue,  filler  material,  dyes,  ground  wood. 

The  amount  of  filler  may  be  determined  by  incinerating 
a  piece  of  paper  of  known  weight.  As  the  filler  is  non- 
combustible,  the  weight  of  the  ash  determines  the  percentage 
of  filler,  although  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  amount 
of  water  of  crystallization  driven  off  from  the  mineral. 

Tests  for  acids  are  important  in  papers  used  for  mounting 
tarnishable  substances,  such  as  jewelry. 


APPRAISING  AND  TESTING  PAPER  75 

Tests  for  sulphur  or  chlorine  are  important  in  determining 
the  chemical  purity  of  the  paper,  since  such  residues  militate 
against  the  permanency  of  color  and  strength  of  paper. 

The  presence  of  ground  wood  is  easily  determined  by  a 
drop  of  either  strong  nitric  acid,  which  turns  the  paper  brown, 
or  a  drop  of  phloroglucine,  which  gives  a  reddish-brown  tint 
from  contact  with  ground  wood.  Aniline  sulphate  produces 
a  yellow  tinge. 

The  presence  of  starch  may  be  ascertained  by  using  a 
dilute  solution  of  Iodine  which  leaves  a  black  stain  in  con- 
tact with  starch. 

Note. — For  more  technical  information  see  "Paper  Technology"  by 
R.  W.  Sindall. 


CHAPTER  TEN 

PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES 

TECHNICAL  difficulties  with  paper  in  the  press- 
room arise  from  many  sources.  They  may  be  con- 
veniently classified  into  three  groups:  Difficulties 
for  which  the  manufacturer  is  responsible;  difficulties  for 
which  the  printer  is  responsible,  and  difficulties  due  to  at- 
mospheric and  other  natural  conditions  not  entirely  within 
human  control.  Let  us  consider  some  of  the  first  group. 

UNIFORMITY. — Probably  the  most  frequent  source  of 
trouble  is  lack  of  uniformity,  either  in  weight,  thickness  or 
finish.  This  is  chargeable  to  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the 
paper-machine  tender.  A  run  of  paper  which  varies  in 
weight  will  naturally  vary  in  thickness,  and,  obviously,  this 
could  account  for  uneven  color  in  presswork.  These  varia- 
tions would  not  necessarily  be  accompanied  by  a  varia- 
tion in  finish.  To  make  paper  uniform  in  all  three  respects 
necessitates,  firstly,  uniform  consistency  of  the  pulp — or 
"stuff,"  as  it  is  technically  called — at  the  point  where  it  flows 
onto  the  machine.  A  uniform  volume  of  stuff  and  uniform 
speed  of  the  machine  are  also  demanded.  The  speed  of  the 
machine  and  the  volume  of  stuff  are  quite  readily  controlled, 
but  as  the  amount  of  water  used  by  the  beater-man  in  pre- 
paring the  stuff  is  usually  judged  by  the  appearence  of  the 
pulp  in  the  beater,  there  are  always  such  variations  as  are 
peculiar  to  this  human  factor. 

The  difficulties  of  the  machine-tender  may  often  be  traced 
to  the  beater-man,  not  only  on  account  of  the  amount  of 
water  in  the  mixture,  but  also  because  of  the  irregularity  in 
the  length  of  fiber  from  one  beaterful  to  another. 

Assuming  that  the  stuff  is  right  and  the  formation  on  the 
machine  is  good,  the  pressing  of  the  paper  next  demands 
close  attention.  It  is  obvious  that  any  unevenness  of  pres- 

(76) 


PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES  77 

sure  will  result  in  the  water  being  expelled  unevenly  from 
the  web  of  paper,  with  a  consequent  variation  in  thickness. 
In  this  case  there  would  also  be  a  damp  streak  in  that  part 
of  the  web  where  the  pressing  was  too  light. 

The  result  is  that  such  paper  can  not  be  dried  evenly  all 
the  way  across  the  machine  because  this  damp  streak  will 
still  have  an  excess  of  moisture  after  the  adjacent  areas  of  the 
web  have  become  properly  dried. 

FINISH. — In  running  through  the  calenders  the  damper 
portion  will  take  a  higher  finish.  It  may  even  be  so  damp  as 
to  cause  a  blackening  or  crushing  of  the  paper;  whereas,  if 
the  moisture  is  sufficiently  evaportaed  from  this  streak,  the 
rest  of  the  paper  may  be  so  dry  that  it  will  not  finish  smooth- 
ly enough. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  cases  where  the  pressing  and 
drying  may  be  perfectly  uniform,  but  the  whole  web  vacil- 
lates from  being  too  dry  to  being  too  moist,  while  between 
times  the  manipulation  is  exactly  right. 

The  result,  obviously,  will  be  a  variation  in  finish  over 
the  whole  width  of  the  paper  instead  of  over  a  portion. 
Moreover,  too  much  drying  makes  the  paper  fuzzy  and  likely 
to  become  wavy,  besides  weakening  the  fibers. 

Another  result  of  uneven  pressing  is  to  make  the  paper 
thinner  where  the  pressing  is  hardest.  Such  a  defect  is  quite 
obvious  in  a  pile  of  paper,  as  the  top  will  not  be  as  level  as  it 
would  be  in  paper  that  is  uniform  in  thickness  throughout. 

Assuming  that  the  paper  is  perfect  as  it  leaves  the  driers 
there  is  still  a  chance  that  one  or  more  of  the  calender  rolls 
may  get  out  of  true,  especially  when  starting  a  run  after  they 
have  been  idle  long  enough  to  get  cold.  Under  such  condi- 
tions they  often  heat  up  and  expand  unevenly  so  that  the 
pressure  is  harder  in  some  sections  than  in  others.  The  result 
is  a  thin  streak  in  the  paper.  Whether  the  thinness  be  caused 
by  poor  pressing  or  calendering,  it  can  easily  be  detected  in 
a  roll  of  paper,  as  the  thin  streak  makes  a  soft  spot  in  the  roll 
which  can  quickly  be  located  by  tapping  the  roll  all  the  way 


78  PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES 

across.  A  muffled  rather  than  a  ringing  sound  discloses  soft 
places. 

This  defect,  if  bad,  may  cause  considerable  trouble  on 
a  web  press,  as  no  amount  of  manipulation  will  make  the 
paper  draw  evenly  as  it  runs  into  the  press  if  the  edge  of  the 
roll  is  slack. 

Occasionally,  segregated  areas  in  paper  are  found  to  vary 
in  finish,  and  when  these  do  not  run  in  continuous  streaks 
they  may  often  be  caused  by  the  felts  which  carry  the  paper 
through  the  press  rolls  having  become  clogged  up  in  spots  so 
that  the  water  can  not  pass  out  evenly  from  the  paper 
through  the  felt.  This  must  be  guarded  against  by  occasion- 
ally stopping  the  machine  and  washing  the  felts,  or  changing 
them,  as  the  occasion  dictates. 

Such  damp  spots  in  the  paper  crush  in  the  calendering 
and  make  blackened  areas  in  the  paper.  Uneven  drying  may 
also  have  been  occasioned  by  slackness  of  the  drier  felt  which 
holds  the  paper  against  the  driers.  In  sheeting  the  cheaper 
grades  of  book  paper  it  is  customary  to  cut  off  from  a  number 
of  rolls  simultaneously,  which  often  accounts  for  a  variation 
in  finish  or  bulk  in  sheets  from  the  same  case. 

Of  course,  when  any  of  these  symptoms  appear  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  men  on  the  machines  to  correct  them,  and  in  the 
continuous  course  of  paper-making  it  is  inevitable  that  felts 
become  filled  up  and  require  washing  or  changing,  or  that  the 
variations  of  consistency  in  the  stuff  should  call  for  some  form 
of  regulation.  Stuff  which  runs  too  moist  on  the  wire  will 
often  "crush"  under  the  couch  roll,  producing  a  curdled 
appearance.  Stuff  run  with  insufficient  water  will  not  form 
evenly  The  skilful  machine-tender  avoids  these  extremes. 

TRADE  CUSTOMS.— In  recognition  of  the  many  variable 
elements  in  paper-making,  trade  customs  have  been  estab- 
lished, such  as  allowances  for  a  normal  variation  in  the  weight 
of  paper  above  or  below  the  nominal  ream-weight,  and  rea- 
sonable allowance  should  be  made  for  normal  variations  in 
other  characreristics. 


PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES  79 

Eternal  vigilance  and  alert  judgment  are  certainly  re- 
quired for  setting  high  standards  in  the  manufacture  of  paper. 
It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that  mills  using  prac- 
tically the  same  raw  materials  vary  widely  in  their  reputation 
for  uniformity  and  excellence  of  product.  The  reason  for 
this  is  to  be  found  in  the  human  element. 

CALENDER  DEFECTS. — A  number  of  difficulties  may  arise 
from  much  less  excusable  causes  than  those  mentioned.  For 
example,  the  paper  sometimes  may  run  slack  through  the 
calenders,  with  the  result  that  it  wrinkles  and  cuts  in 
diagonal  jags  called  "calender  cuts." 

Sheets  contain'ng  such  defects  sometimes  elude  the  fin- 
ishers, and  on  the  printing-press  such  a  sheet  may  crack  and 
go  around  one  of  the  ink  rollers.  On  a  web  press  the  trouble 
from  such  a  defect  wou'd  be  even  worse,  causing  breaks  and 
ne  essitating  delays  on  the  press.  It  is  more  difficult  to  ex- 
clude ca  ender  cuts  from  roll  paper,  as  it  is  not  always  easy 
to  see  them  in  the  fast-running  paper,  so  that  an  occasional 
cut  is  not  an  unforgivable  sin. 

Among  other  defects  arising  on  the  calenders  are  little 
scarlike  depressions  in  the  paper,  made  by  small  scraps  of 
paper  which  have  become  lodged  on  a  calender  roll  and  are 
embossed  into  the  web  at  each  revolution  of  the  roll. 

HOLES,  DIRT,  ETC. — In  very  light  papers,  holes  are 
sometimes  found,  the  most  likely  cause  of  which  may  be 
picking  under  the  dandy  roll  or  grease  spots  on  the  wire 
cloth.  Of  less  frequent  difficulty  are  the  so-called  pinholes, 
cau  ed  by  sand  or  grit,  while  slime  spots,  or  spots  caused  by 
slight  bundles  of  fibers,  are  also  occasionally  noticed. 

Dirt  and  specks  originate  from  careless  handling  of  rags 
or  paper  stock,  and  are  also  derived  from  shives  of  undi- 
gested wood  in  the  wood-pulp. 

Streaks  in  the  paper  may  originate  from  a  crease  in  the 
wire,  and  mottled  effects  denote  some  fault  in  the  handling 
of  the  paper  in  the  wet  stages  of  making. 


80  PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES 

Again  there  are  times  when  sheets  are  not  cut  quite 
square,  which  is,  of  course,  inexcusably  careless.  Likewise, 
the  packing  of  paper  may  be  done  in  a  careless  manner,  and 
cases  too  loosely  packed,  if  set  on  end,  often  cause  a  wave 
in  the  paper,  which  sags  in  the  case  instead  of  remaining 
tight  and  flat.  It  is  desirable  that  cases  of  paper  be  kept  flat 
in  storage  and  not  set  on  end.  Cases  should  be  made  from 
well-dried  boards,  and  waterproof  lining-paper  should  be 
used  to  exclude  all  dampness.  When  paper  is  finished  in 
rolls  it  is  fair  to  demand  that  the  rolls  should  be  wound 
evenly  and  hard,  and  all  breaks  should  be  carefully  spliced 
and  flagged. 

COLOR. — The  foregoing  troubles  are  mechanical.  Other 
difficulties  may  exist,  even  when  the  paper  is  handled  well 
on  the  machine,  owing  to  errors  in  composition.  The  color 
may  vary,  and  the  term  "color"  includes  the  various  shades 
called  white,  as  well  as  tints.  Color  is  affected  by  water 
conditions.  In  the  case  of  mills  which  depends  upon  river 
water,  the  water  sometimes  becomes  so  dirty  that  it  severely 
handicaps  the  paper-maker,  in  spite  of  his  filtering  apparatus, 
and  at  such  times  it  becomes  difficult  to  get  as  bright  and 
lively  shades  as  under  favorable  conditions. 

Dyestuffs  do  not  always  work  uniformly,  and,  therefore, 
absolute  matches  of  color  from  run  to  run  are  not  to  be  ex- 
pected. Shortcomings  of  this  nature  should  be  regarded 
with  some  lenience. 

In  this  class  of  difficulties,  discrepancies  in  sizing  are  the 
less  pardonable  and  are  more  apt  to  be  noticed  when  hard 
sizing  is  requisite,  as  in  writing-paper  or  index  bristol.  In 
such  cases  a  lack  of  sufficient  sizing  is  an  incurable  fault,  for 
which  the  manufacturer  is  responsible.  There  are  occa- 
sions when  excess  of  sizing  would  be  troublesome — for 
example,  in  a  smooth-finished  book-paper  it  would  be 
likely  to  cause  offsetting,  but  this  trouble  may  be  alleviated 
by  using  less  ink,  or,  if  necessary,  by  slip-sheeting. 


PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES  81 

It  would  be  difficult  to  catalogue  all  possible  sources  of 
trouble,  but  we  have  at  least  covered  the  principal  defects 
of  uncoated  papers. 

PACKING. — Occasionally  troubles  may  be  changed  to 
faulty  packing — cases  too  loosely  packed  when  stood  on  end 
permit  the  paper  to  sag,  thus  causing  a  curling  tendency  at 
one  end  of  the  sheets. 

The  use  of  unseasoned  case  lumber  or  cases  and  in- 
ferior case  linning  five  access  to  moisture,  the  effect  of  which 
is  discussed  herein  at  length. 

The  susceptibility  of  coating  to  picking  may  be  determin- 
ed by  applying  hot  sealing  wax.  If  the  wax  after  cooling  is 
pulled  off  with  only  the  coating  adhering  it  may  be  assumed 
that  a  "tacky"  ink  would  work  the  same,  whereas  if  the 
paper  tears  out  with  the  wax — it  proves  conclusively  that 
the  coating  is  well  sized. 

COATED-PAPER  TROUBLES. — Coated  papers  have  their 
characteristic  shortcomings.  The  picking  of  small  particles 
of  the  coating  is  perhaps  the  most  common  fault,  and  is 
caused  by  insufficient  adhesive  elements  in  the  coating  mix- 
ture. Other  troubles  are  traceable  to  some  of  the  defects  of 
the  body  stock.  Irregularity  of  the  finish  is  sure  to  come 
from  faulty  application  of  the  coating  or  careless  calendering. 
Grit  or  bubbles  in  the  coating  is  likely  to  result  in  a  porous 
surface.  The  sour  odor  of  some  coated  papers  is  due  to  de- 
composing casein  or  glue. 

Casein  used  as  an  adhesive  in  most  coated  papers  is  a 
product  from  skim  milk.  It  contains  lactic  acid  which  must 
be  neutralized  in  perparing  the  coating  mixture.  For  this 
purpose  an  alkali  such  as  soda  or  ammonia  is  used,  and  when 
properly  handled  the  coating  should  be  neutral.  An  alkaline 
coating  will  cause  re-etching  on  lithographic  plates  or  stones. 

Starch  coatings  or  combinations  of  starch  and  casein  are 
cheaper  than  full  casein  and  do  not  yield  as  high  a  finish  and 
when  improperly  used  have  often  been  the  cause  of  picking. 


82  PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES 

THE  PRINTER'S  RESPONSIBILITY. — The  second  group  of 
difficulties,  or  those  for  which  the  printer  is  to  blame,  may 
originate  with  the  improper  storage  of  the  paper.  As 
pointed  out,  the  standing  of  cases  on  end  is  conducive  to 
wavy  paper.  Dampness  is  a  prime  cause  of  trouble,  as  will 
be  sufficiently  shown  later  on,  but  it  is  elementary  to  say 
that  paper  should  never  be  exposed  to  moisture. 

ENGRAVINGS. — The  troubles  of  ignorant  or  inefficient 
pressmen  and  foremen  are  often  laid  to  the  paper,  espe- 
cially where  half-tone  printing  is  involved.  In  the  first 
place,  too  little  attention  is  given  to  securing  proper  originals 
for  the  half-tones.  Retouching  is  omitted  in  a  fit  of  false 
economy,  for  at  this  very  stage  of  the  game  it  was  never 
truer  that  "An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of 
cure."  Too  much  care  can  hardly  be  given  to  securing  good 
engravings. 

Secondly,  the  selection  of  a  proper  half-tone  screen  is 
frequently  overlooked.  While  no  hard-and-fast  rules  may 
be  set,  the  best  one,  when  in  doubt,  is  to  include  with  the 
engraver's  order  a  sample  of  the  paper  on  which  the  cuts 
will  be  printed.  He  can  judge,  taking  into  consideration  the 
subject  and  the  stock,  which  screen  is  advisable.  In  general, 
it  may  be  affirmed  that  120  or  133  line  screens  are  best  for 
uncoated  smoothly  finished  papers,  and  150  or  175  line 
screens  are  most  satisfactory  for  coated  stock. 

INKS.— Next  comes  the  suitability  of  the  ink,  and  there 
again  the  ink  manufacturer's  advice,  always  available,  is 
often  neglected;  but  experience  proves  that  certain  papers 
yield  best  results  with  certain  inks.  Such  matters  can  only 
be  determined  by  actual  experience,  but  when  in  doubt  con- 
sult the  ink-man. 

MAKE-READY. — Finally,  the  make-ready  should  be  intel- 
ligently varied  according  to  the  subject  and  the  paper.  The 
best  printers  agree  that  different  papers  to  some  extent  re- 
quire individual  treatment.  A  make-ready  suitable  for  a  coated 
paper  is  not  necessarily  equally  satisfactory  for  an  uncoated 


PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES  83 

half-tone  paper  or  even  a  dull-finished  coated  stock.  But  it 
is  not  within  my  province  to  go  further  than  to  emphasize 
these  warnings. 

GRAIN. — The  question  of  the  grain  in  paper  is  certainly, 
in  many  cases,  within  the  control  of  the  printer  when  order- 
ing his  paper,  but  its  importance  is  very  frequently  over- 
looked. In  machine-made  papers  there  is  a  distinct  grain 
that  is  caused  because  a  majority  of  the  fibers  point  in  the 
direction  that  the  stuff  flows  on  the  machine,  just  like  logs 
floating  in  a  river. 

This  grain  direction  is  noticeable  in  folding,  the  crease 
being  smoothest  with  the  grain,  because  folding  across  the 
grain  encounters  the  most  resistance  and  breaks  many  of 
the  fibers.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in  fairly  heavy  book- 
papers,  in  bristol  boards  and  cover-stock,  all  of  which  should 
be  scored  for  folding. 

Cut  cards,  to  have  the  maximum  stiffness,  should  be  so 
trimmed  out  of  the  sheet  as  to  have  the  grain  run  in  the  long 
direction  of  the  card. 

Even  in  book-papers,  where  flexibility  is  desirable,  it  is 
necessary  to  have  the  grain  run  up  and  down  the  page. 
There  are  occasional  cases  when  the  grain  is  deliberately 
arranged  to  run  across  the  page  to  acquire  more  rigidity.  A 
wide  page  of  light-weight  paper  might  otherwise  be  too  limp. 
Moreover,  this  arrangement  makes  for  stronger  bindings,  as 
the  stitches  or  wires  pass  around  the  bundles  of  fibers  instead 
of  cutting  between  them.  The  English  'books  are  mostly 
made  up  in  this  way,  but  they  do  not  open  so  easily  as  when 
the  grain  runs  parallel  to  the  binding.  Paper  is  materially 
weaker  across  the  grai  and  can  withstand  only  about  half 
the  tensile  strain  that  it  could  bear  with  the  grain,  although 
crosswise  it  is  more  elastic. 

There  is  one  very  serious  objection  to  making  books  or 
catalogues  "cross-grained."  This  is  on  account  of  the  way 
fibers  are  affected  by  moisture.  The  cellulose  fiber  expands 
in  diameter  on  absorbing  moisture,  for  which  it  has  a  great 


84  PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES 

affinity.  Indeed,  a  cellulose  fiber  is  only  stable  under  uni- 
form atmospheric  conditions.  The  expansion  of  each  fiber 
in  diameter  makes  paper  expand  much  more  across  than 
with  the  grain.  Obviously,  the  total  expansion  of  a  sheet 
equals  the  amount  each  fiber  expands  times  the  number  of 
fibers  that  side  by  side  go  to  make  up  the  sheet. 

When  the  glue  is  applied  to  a  book  in  process  of  binding, 
it  causes  an  expansion  of  all  the  moistened  fibers. 

If  the  grain  runs  parallel  to  the  shelf -back  no  harm  re- 
sults, as  the  paper  is  free  to  expand  toward  the  side  margin, 
but  if  the  grain  is  at  right  angles  it  usually  makes  a  cockle 
in  the  binding  because  the  moistened  edges  of  the  leaves 
expand  while  the  dry  portion  beyond  where  the  moisture 
penetrates  retains  its  shape  and  resists  the  elongation  of  the 
wet  edges.  Consequently  the  expansion  of  the  fibers  ex- 
presses itself  by  cockling. 

REGISTER. — In  all  printing,  when  close  register  is  neces- 
sary, the  danger  of  poor  register  from  the  expansion  of  paper 
is  minimized  when  the  dimension  across  the  grain  is  the  short- 
er. Lithographers  invariably  prefer  to  have  the  grain  run 
the  long  way  of  the  sheet  on  this  account.  Moreover, 
they  rack  the  paper  before  printing  in  order  to  get  it 
thoroughly  seasoned.  To  protect  it  from  atmospheric 
changes  that  may  occur  during  the  printing  process,  they 
use  slip-sheets  of  considerably  larger  dimensions,  so  that  there 
is  a  generous  margin  of  slip-sheet  around  each  printed  sheet, 
which  helps  to  exclude  the  air  from  the  edges  of  the  printed 
paper. 

MOISTURE  IN  PAPER. — It  is  true  that  some  papers  are 
more  prone  to  expand  than  others,,  especially  if  they  have 
been  run  too  dry  on  the  machine.  Paper  is  not  naturally 
bone-dry.  Under  average  weather  conditions,  it  contains 
six  or  seven  per  cent  of  moisture.*  When  in  the  making  it  is 
turned  off  far  below  its  normal  moistness,  it  seeks  to  obtain 

*See  Herzberg  table,  page  64. 


PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES  85 

this  moisture  from  the  air  at  the  first  opportunity,  and  in 
acquiring  it  expansion  takes  place.  Unless  the  expansion 
pervades  the  entire  sheet,  wavy  edges  will  result.  Similarly 
when  the  air  becomes  due  exposed  edges  of  paper  give  off 
some  moisture  and  shrink  accordingly  leaving  a  boggy 
centre  to  the  sheets. 

SEASONING. — This  process  of  acquiring  normal  moisture 
is  usually  called  "seasoning."  As  paper  is  probably  never 
turned  off  at  its  full  normal  moisture,  it  is  most  desirable  that 
it  should  be  allowed  time  to  season.  It  is  not  unusual  to 
have  people  speak  of  new  paper  being  too  "green."  This 
may  not  have  been  an  uncommon  condition  of  hand-made 
papers  which  were  dried  entirely  naturally,  but,  so  far  as 
machine-dried  paper  is  concerned,  I  doubt  if  it  is  ever  too 
green,  though  it  is  frequently  made  too  dry. 

CONDITIONS  BEYOND  ABSOLUTE  CONTROL. — Believing  it 
to  be  impracticable  to  leave  the  precise  normal  moisture  in 
machine-made  paper,  I  have  deliberately  refrained  from 
classifying  this  difficulty  with  faults  chargeable  to  manu- 
facture, and  the  general  recognition  of  this  circumstance 
indicates  the  wisdom  of  ordering  paper  long  enough  in  ad- 
vance to  permit  of  a  period  of  seasoning.  In  fact,  this  phen- 
nomenon  of  expansion  or  contraction  of  cellulose  fibers  places 
difficulties  originating  from  this  source  in  the  class  of  con- 
ditions beyond  absolute  human  control,  but  a  study  and 
understanding  of  the  subject  will  enable  one  to  prevent,  or 
at  least  to  minimize,  such  troubles.  It  consequently  becomes 
the  business  of  the  printer  to  inform  himself  as  thoroughly  as 
possible  on  the  subject.  Static  electricity  is  an  element 
beyond  absolute  control  and  the  source  of  much  trouble. 
Both  phenomena  could  be  controlled  by  proper  atmos- 
pheric conditions  in  storage  and  press  rooms,  but  it  is  an 
expensive  matter  to  equip  rooms  and  install  the  necessary 
apparatus.  The  amount  of  trouble  arising  from  these 
elements  is  often  sufficiently  costly  in  time  and  material  to 
warrant  investigation  as  to  the  expense  involved. 


86  PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES 

The  least  a  printer  can  do  is  to  maintain  hygrometers  in 
his  pressroom  so  as  to  keep  track  of  atmospheric  variations, 
and  be  guided  accordingly. 

STATIC  ELECTRICITY  IN  PAPER 

Among  the  "paper  troubles"  due  to  conditions  for  which 
neither  the  paper-maker  nor  the  printer  is  responsible,  none 
is  more  bothersome  than  the  presence  of  static  electricity 
in  paper.  These  static  charges,  which  are  created  by  friction 
either  in  the  making  or  handling  of  paper,  develop  magnetic 
propensities  in  the  sheets,  causing  them  to  behave  in  ways 
which  seem  nothing  but  freakish  until  their  nature  is  under- 
stood. Some  sheets  stick  together  as  if  they  were  glued, 
while  others  appear  repellent  to  one  another.  Likewise, 
they  may  act  in  the  same  manner  toward  the  fly-bars  of  the 
press.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to  "feed"  sheets  so  charged, 
and  there  is  every  likelihood  of  the  ink  from  one  sheet 
offsetting  to  another. 

Every  one  familiar  with  the  magnet  knows  that  there 
are  in  magnetism  two  poles,  the  positive  and  the  negative; 
that  two  substances  of  opposite  polarity  attract  one  another, 
but  that  substances  of  the  same  polarity  repel  each  other. 
Static  electricity — or  frictional  electricity,  as  it  is  also  called 
— exists  both  in  positive  and  negative  charges,  and  sheets  of 
paper  contain-' ng  static  charges  are  governed  accordingly. 

Paper,  when  dry,  is  an  insulator  to  electricity,  but  when 
moist  it  becomes  an  excellent  conductor.  Consequently,  too 
much  drying  in  manufacture  increases  the  likelihood  of  elec- 
trical troubles,  because  it  makes  the  paper  more  retentive  of 
electricity  with  which  it  may  become  charged. 

Pure  air  is  also  an  insulator  of  electricity,  which  finds  its 
paths  through  the  air  by  means  of  the  dust  particles  in 
suspension.  Moisture  in  the  air  forms  a  connection  between 
the  dust  particles  through  which  the  electricity  easily  passes 
into  the  ground,  but  when  the  air  is  dry  this  medium  is  lack- 
ing, so  that  substances  containing  static  charges  are  deprived 


STATIC  ELECTRICITY  IN  PAPER  87 

of  these  channels  of  conductivity.  Cold  air  can  not  hold  so 
much  moisture  as  warm  air,  so  that  its  insulating  properties 
are  increased.  It  is,  consequently,  in  cold  weather  when  this 
sort  of  paper  trouble  is  at  its  worst. 

These  facts  suggest  the  first  steps  of  prevention  to  take 
against  static  electricity.  First  keep  the  air  in  the  press- 
room warm,  and,  if  necessary,  increase  its  humidity.  It  is 
also  advisable  to  keep  the  paper  in  a  warm  room,  for  it  has 
often  been  noticed  that  paper  coming  cold  into  a  pressroom 
gives  much  trouble. 

The  entire  virtue  of  the  so-called  electric  annihilators 
for  moistening  the  tympan  of  a  press  comes  from  the  mois- 
ture they  contain.  Ordinary  glycerin,  which  is  cheaper,  will 
answer  as  well.  These  applications  are  undesirable  because 
they  cause  the  packing  to  swell,  and,  in  consequence,  detract 
from  the  adjustment  of  the  overlays. 

There  is  a  simple  and  not  very  expensive  device  on  the 
market  called  the  Thompson  electrical  neutralizer  that  has 
been  found  helpful.  It  is  provided  with  a  tinsel  cord  such 
as  is  used  in  decorating  Christmas  trees.  The  cord  is  stretch- 
ed across  the  press  so  that  the  sheets  are  brushed  by  it  as  they 
pass  to  the  delivery  board,  and  are  thus  offered  a  connection 
whereby  the  static  charges  may  escape  into  the  ground.  A 
second  device  of  merit  consists  in  a  gas  pipe  with  flames  at 
frequent  intervals  over  which  the  printed  sheets  pass  in 
close  proximity  on  their  way  to  the  delivery  board. 

The  most  successful  neutralizer  with  which  the  writer  is 
personally  familiar  is  the  Chapman.  By  means  of  an  alter- 
nating current  of  electricity,  it  supplies  through  a  special 
apparatus  alternating  discharges  of  positive  and  negative 
electric  currents  against  the  sheets  of  paper  as  they  are 
carried  along  the  press.  In  the  presence  of  such  a  current 
the  charges  on  the  paper  become  their  own  destroyers,  as 
they  draw  out  of  the  alternating  current  only  the  kind  and 
quantity  of  electricity  which  is  sufficient  for  their  complete 
neutralization. 


88  STATIC  ELECTRICITY  IN  PAPER 

There  have  been  quite  a  number  of  other  inventions,  an 
account  of  which  the  writer  published  in  The  Printing  Art 
Vol.  XIX,  No.  1,  March,  1912.  All  are  based  on  one  of  the 
following  principles : 

1. — Making  paper  a  conductor  by  moistening. 

2. — Making  the  air  a  conductor  by  humidifying. 

3. — Inducing  static  charges  out  of  the  paper  by  means  of 
grounded  wires  or  gas  flames. 

4. — Neutralizing  the  static  charges  in  the  sheet  with 
charges  of  opposite  polarity. 

Another  solution  of  this  problem,  as  well  as  of  the  prob- 
lem of  expansion  of  paper  and  consequent  poor  register, 
could  be  reached  by  the  construction  of  an  insulated  press- 
room. The  air  for  this  room  should  be  supplied  through  an 
apparatus  in  which  it  could  be  brought  to  any  required  degree 
of  temperature  and  humidity.  The  paper  wrould  naturally 
have  to  undergo  sufficient  airing  in  such  a  room  as  to  become 
acclimated.  After  that,  if  the  conditions  remained  constant, 
there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  getting  register,  so  far  as  the 
paper  was  concerned,  and  a  proper  amount  of  warmth  and 
moisture  would  also  dissipate  all  static  electricity. 

It  is  difficult  to  anticipate  or  to  completely  cover  all 
conceivable  paper  troubles,  and  when  some  one  which  may 
not  be  diagnosed  on  the  basis  of  the  general  principles 
enumerated,  consultation  with  some  paper  expert  should 
clearly  be  sought.  The  author  will  be  glad  to  communicate 
on  such  subjects. 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

THE  PAPER  TRADE 

The  distribution  of  paper  is  cared  for  in  part  by  direct 
sales  from  the  mills  to  consumers,  such  as  large  publishers 
of  newspapers,  magazines,  and  books,  and  manufacturers 
of  paper  commodities,  such  as  tags,  boxes,  stationery,  toilet 
accessories  etc. 

The  sale  is  also  conducted  to  some  extent  by  brokers,  who 
operate  principally  in  a  few  of  the  larger  cities,  especially 
those  located  within  easy  shipping  distance  from  the  mills, 
where  the  handicap  of  not  carrying  a  large  warehouse  stock 
is  at  a  minimum. 

The  broker  carries  no  stock  as  a  rule,  with  the  exception 
of  a  supply  for  regular  contracts.  Occasionally  the  mills 
will  carry  a  stock  for  the  broker.  A  few  firms  specializing  on 
contract  business  have  made  distinct  successes  in  this  branch 
of  the  paper  business,  but  the  broker  is  not  an  important 
figure  in  the  paper  trade,  taking  the  country  as  a  whole. 

The  most  important  distributing  factor  to  the  printing 
trade,  is  the  paper  merchant,  who  with  his  large  purchasing 
power,  accumulates  ample  and  varied  stocks,  at  minimum 
cost  (having  the  advantage  of  carload  prices  and  freight  rates), 
and  stands  ready  to  distribute  in  large  or  small  quantities, 
whatever  is  required.  He  also  helps  in  a  considerable 
measure  to  finance  his  trade  by  extending  credit. 

There  is  a  distinct  tendency  toward  "chain  stores"  one 
of  the  more  prominent  of  which  now  comprises  eight  ware- 
houses and  seventeen  branch  offices,  covering  practically  the 
entire  country.  These  large  factors  frequently  control  the 
entire  output  of  several  mills,  and  sell  to  the  smaller  jobbers, 
as  well  as  to  the  printers  and  consumers. 

Statistics  on  distribution  are  apparently  lacking,  since 
the  Government  has  never  regularly  compiled  them,  and  the 
National  Paper  Trade  Association,  composed  of  paper 

(89) 


90  THE  PAPER  TRADE 

merchants  was  unable  to  furnish  any.  The  only  estimate  the 
author  has  obtained,  comes  through  the  President  of  the 
American  Paper  &  Pulp  Association,  (The  Manufacturers' 
Association),  who  wrote  on  Jan.  22nd,  1914 — 

THE  PAPER  TRADE 

"In  writing  paper  I  should  estimate  that  95  per  cent  is 
sold  through  the  jobbers. 

In  book  paper  I  should  say  not  over  33  J^  per  cent  is  sold 
through  jobbers. 

In  news  paper  probably  not  over  10  per  cent  is  sold 
through  jobbers. 

In  wrapping  paper  I  should  say  about  95  per  cent  is  sold 
through  jobbers. 

In  box  boards  probably  not  over  25  per  cent  is  sold  by 
jobbers. 

Tissue  paper,  perhaps  25  per  cent  is  sold  through  jobbers. 

(The  balance  is  sold  direct  to  manufacturers  who 
re-manufacture  it,  like  toilet  paper  manufacturers)." 

The  indications  therefore  are,  that  the  very  large  con- 
sumers of  printing  papers  buy  direct  from  the  mills,  as  do 
many  of  the  large  manufacturers  of  commodities  composed 
largely  of  paper. 

The  printers  who  in  the  aggregate  consume  large  quanti- 
ties of  writing,  catalog,  and  miscellaneous  printing  paper,  but 
whose  orders  are  composed  principally  of  many  small  items, 
buy  almost  wholly  from  the  paper  jobbers.  In  localities 
far  removed  from  the  Mills,  the  jobber  very  naturally  occu- 
pies a  more  conspicuous  position  than  elsewhere,  and  his 
superior  facilities  for  handling  the  business  make  him  a 
stronger  factor  than  in  the  markets  adjacent  to  the  mills, 
and  enable  him  to  handle  much  of  the  largest  business  to 
advantage. 

In  the  New  England  Letter  issued  in  January,  1913,  by 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Boston,  the  following  interesting 
statement  was  made  in  regard  to  paper. 


THE  PAPER  TRADE 


91 


"The  Paper  trade  is  essentially  a  hand-to-mouth  trade  in 
all  branches  except  the  news  print  department.  In  general, 
purchases  are  made  only  as  required,  and  fluctuations  in 
price  effect  but  slightly  the  demand.  In  short,  an  analysis 
of  the  production  of  the  Paper  Mills  of  the  country,  taking 
into  consideration  stocks  on  hand,  is  specially  significant  as 
an  index  of  current  trade  conditions. 

The  situation  is  shown  by  the  following  table  which 
gives  an  idea  of  the  paper  output,  the  stocks  on  hand,  and 
the  number  of  days'  supply  available  for  November,  1912. 

Output  and  Stocks  for  November,  1912,  of  American  Paper 
(in  tons) 


Normal 
Output 
per 
month 
Nov., 
1912 

Actual 
Output 
Nov., 
1912 

Stk.  on 
hand 
Nov.  30, 
1912 

No.  days  supply  on  hand 
Output 

Normal 
Basis 

Actual 
Basis 

All  Grades  

367,154 
113,516 
83,174 
63,474 
50,674 
16,198 
10,868 
5,642 

348,640 
106,715 
78,243 
62,134 
49,168 
14,024 
9,922 
5,455 

163,557 
43,504 
11,249 
31,200 
27,065 
23,137 
10,750 
2,187 

13 

HM 

4 
15 
16 
48 
30 
UK 

13 
12 

4M 
15 
16H 
49 
32 
12 

Newsprint  

Board  Paper  

Book  Paper  
Wrapping  Paper  
Writing  Paper  

Coated  Book  Paper  . 
Tissue  Paper  

It  is  noticeable  from  this  table  what  the  merchants'  ser- 
vice means  to  the  Printer,  for  in  the  lines  that  are  sold  very 
largely,  direct  on  making  orders  from  the  mill  to  the  con- 
sumer, the  number  of  days'  supply  on  hand  is  small,  whereas 
among  the  items  most  often  used  in  the  average  print  shop, 
anywhere  from  two  to  seven  weeks'  supply  is  carried  in  stock. 

The  Jobber  unquestionably  occupies  a  permanent  and 
important  position  as  the  distributor  of  paper,  not  only 
because  he  affords  a  centralization  of  information  and 


92  THE  PAPER  TRADE 

stocks,  which  is  more  economical  than  if  every  manufacturer 
had  to  maintain  separate  channels  of  distribution,  but  also 
because  he  relieves  the  Printer  of  the  necessity  of  tieing  up  a 
large  amount  of  money  in  paper.  In  earlier  times,  when  there 
were  but  few  kinds  and  a  small  consumption  of  paper,  the 
situation  was  very  different,  and  there  was  no  need  for  the 
middle  man. 

Today  the  elimination  of  the  merchant  would  mean  the 
elimination  of  the  majority  of  Printers,  for  it  is  inconceivable 
that  the  printing  industry,  in  which  according  to  Govern- 
ment Statistics,  86%  of  the  establishments  do  a  yearly 
business  of  less  than  $20,000,  and  52%  less  than  $5000, 
could  finance  itself  without  the  aid  of  well  organized  Jobbing 
Houses. 

Certainly  the  Printers  are  in  the  total,  large  and  impor- 
tant from  the  merchants'  viewpoint,  but  there  exists  a  strong 
inter-dependence,  which  both  should  realize  and  recognize, 
as  a  most  natural  basis  for  cooperation,  in  the  expansion 
and  increase  of  the  demand  for  printing. 

MERCHANDISING 

Having  considered  the  channels  of  trade  we  come  to  the 
methods  of  merchandising. 

Mills  that  sell  their  products  direct  to  consumers  neces- 
sarily maintain  a  sales  organization  at  their  main  offices,  and 
as  circumstances  may  require  local  representatives,  in  the 
larger  markets,  such  as  New  York  and  Chicago,  these  men 
keep  in  personal  touch  with  the  customers,  furnishing  sam- 
ples, making  contracts,  following  up  shipments  and  adjusting 
claims.  Knowing  the  possible  customers,  this  direct  method 
suffices  without  any  accessory  effort,  such  as  advertising. 

Their  business  is  as  a  rule,  strictly  a  wholesale  proposi- 
tion. It  happens  in  some  instances  that  the  same  mills 
which  sell  some  classes  of  paper  direct,  manufacture  other 
grades  for  distribution  through  the  dealer.  While  other 
mills  rely  entirely  upon  the  merchant  for  their  distribution. 


THE  PAPER  TRADE  93 

Formerly  the  paper  re-sold  by  the  merchant,  was  with 
few  exceptions  handled  under  the  private  brand  of  the  mer- 
chant. A  grade  of  paper  so  handled  would  be  called  by  as 
many  different  names  as  there  were  merchants  selling  it. 

Frequently  the  manufacturer  conceded  the  exclusive 
sale  in  given  territory  to  one  merchant,  but  in  other  cases  the 
same  paper  has  been  handled  by  two  or  more  merchants  in 
the  same  City,  sold  under  different  names,  but  not  invar- 
iably at  the  same  price.  Such  a  condition  is  not  unusual, 
even  today,  but  it  obviously  works  to  perpetuate  the  "Caveat 
emptor"  theory,  which  standard  advertised  brands  in  all 
branches  of  merchandising  is  steadily  eliminating. 

Paper  sold  in  this  way  is  usually  advertised  at  the  entire 
expense  of  the  jobber.  If  the  grade  is  a  stock  article  it  is 
listed  in  the  price  book  and  shown  in  the  sample  set. 

The  competition  between  merchants  has  extended  to  their 
methods  of  sampling,  and  no  important  dealer  today  is 
without  a  well  arranged  Catalog  and  price  list,  giving  com- 
plete data  as  to  the  standard  sizes,  weights,  and  grades,  etc., 
and  also  substantial  sample  cabinets,  which  are  distributed 
to  paper  buyers. 

A  comparatively  recent  development  in  the  paper  busi- 
ness, is  the  exploitation  of  "mill  brands."  That  is  to  say,  a 
mill  manufactures  and  stocks  in  the  most  merchantable 
sizes,  a  grade  of  paper.  This  is  marked  with  the  mill  brand. 
Agencies  are  established  as  far  as  possible  with  a  desirable 
chain  of  paper  merchants,  usually  restricted  to  one  for  each 
City.  The  mill  prepares  sample  books  at  its  own  expense, 
which  are  either  mailed  direct  or  divided  among  the 
appointed  agents  for  distribution.  The  agent  lists  the  paper 
in  his  price  lists,  and  gives  his  salesmen  the  necessary  infor- 
mation about  it. 

This  represents  the  simplest  form  of  merchandising 
mill  brands.  It  has  been  elaborated  however,  until  most 
mills  with  connections  of  this  sort,  do  more  or  less  advertising 
to  assist  in  creating  a  demand  for  their  brands.  They  can 


94  THE  PAPER  TRADE 

afford  to  do  this  on  a  scale  which  would  not  be  warrantable 
for  the  individual  dealer  with  a  more  restricted  market. 
Hence  it  has  come  about  that  many  handsome  specimen 
books,  far  more  elaborate  than  any  the  merchants  had 
usually  issued,  have  been  put  out  by  the  mills. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  influence  on  printing 
has  been  good,  and  an  appreciation  and  demand  for  better 
printing,  especially  on  the  part  of  advertisers,  has  resulted. 

A  few  mills  have  carried  their  campaigns  beyond  the 
field  of  direct  advertising,  which  includes  the  mailing  of 
samples  and  printed  circulars,  and  the  dissemination  of 
printed  samples  in  trade  journals,  such  as  The  Printing 
Art  Suggestion  Book,  The  Pacific  Printer  &  Publisher,  or  the 
direct  mailing  of  folders  or  specimen  books. 

They  also  take  advertising  space  in  the  Printing  Art, 
Inland  Printer,  The  American  Printer  and  other  printing 
trade  journals.  Outside  of  these  has  come  the  use  of  such 
class  magazines  as  System,  Printers'  Ink  and  Advertising  & 
Selling,  and  some  have  even  extended  their  appropriations 
to  include  national  magazines,  notably  The  Saturday  Evening 
Post.  In  one  campaign  a  Chicago  newspaper  was  among 
the  media  selected;  but  the  use  of  newspapers  for  paper 
publicity  is  pracally  nil. 

General  Magazine  advertising  of  paper  has  been  prin- 
cipally devoted  to  writing  paper.  This  is  natural,  since  of 
all  paper  products  this  commodity  has  the  largest  number  of 
buyers,  and  the  matter  of  taste  is  not  so  over-shadowed  by 
technical  considerations,  as  in  the  case  of  printing  papers. 

The  specifications  for  general  printing,  involve  more 
knowledge  of  printing  processes  than  most  people  possess, 
hence  the  final  decision  rests  in  a  majority  of  cases  on  the 
printer's  judgment,  so  that  logically  the  printer  is  the  most 
necessary  individual  to  convert. 

Although  there  has  been  a  marked  increase  of  late  in 
the  exploitation  of  mill  brands,  there  is  no  indication  of  the 
disappearance  of  jobbers'  brands.  A  consumer  today  may 


THE  PAPER  TRADE  95 

fill  nearly  every  requirement  at  will  from  either  class,  and 
this  condition  will  probably  continue  indefinitely,  although 
the  tide  seems  to  be  setting  for  the  moment  toward  the  mill 
brands. 

This  condition  is  not  confined  to  the  paper  trade,  and 
is  probably  due  largely  to  the  aggressive  advertising  of 
manufacturers.  Such  promotion  work  is  still  in  its  infancy, 
and  a  continuation  of  a  growing  demand  for  mill  brands  may 
safely  be  predicted  for  sometime  to  come. 

TRADE  ASSOCIATIONS 

There  are  two  principal  trade  associations  in  the  paper 
business,  one  composed  of  manufacturers  and  the  other  of 
jobbers. 

The  American  Paper  &  Pulp  Association,  composed 
entirely  of  manufacturers  was  organized  in  1877.  Its  pur- 
poses were  described  by  its  President  at  the  Annual  Meeting 
of  1914,  as  "entirely  educational."  It  collects  and  distri- 
butes statistics  of  production,  and  consumption,  among  its 
members,  aims  to  develop  cost  systems,  agrees  upon  trades 
customs,  and  seeks  to  bring  about  uniformity  in  these 
respects.  Technical  education  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
study  by  the  Association,  and  it  is  hoped  will  lead  to  the 
establishment  of  trade  schools. 

A  labor  bureau  is  maintained,  which  helps  manufacturers 
to  find  help,  and  laborers  to  secure  work. 

The  Association  is  separated  into  divisions ;  News,  Wrap- 
ping, Boards,  Tissue,  and  Writing.  A  Book  division  was 
formerly  included,  but  the  manufacturers  of  book  paper 
recently  formed  a  separate  organization  solely  concerned 
with  their  special  branch  of  the  industry. 

The  Association  has  also  played  a  prominent  part  in 
representing  the  industry  in  tariff  matters.  The  membership 
represented  in  1915 — 246  mills. 

The  National  Paper  Trade  Association  was  organized  in 
1903.  Membership  consists  of  jobbers  and  includes  the 


96  THE  PAPER  TRADE 

following  subsidiary  associations;  Baltimore  &  Southern 
Association,  Central  States  Paper  Dealers'  Association, 
Empire  State  Association,  New  England  Paper  Jobbers' 
Association,  Northwestern  Paper  Dealers'  Association,  Paci- 
fic Coast  Paper  Association,  Paper  Association  of  Philadel- 
phia, Paper  Association  of  New  York  City,  Western  Paper 
Dealers'  Association.  The  total  membership  in  1916  was 
236. 

The  work  of  the  Association  has  included  credit  organi- 
zation for  the  exchange  of  information  as  to  credits;  the 
study  and  installation  of  cost  systems;  consideration  of  the 
relations  between  jobbers  and  manufacturers. 

There  are  a  number  of  standing  committees  which  have 
special  details  assigned  to  them.  They  make  regular  reports 
at  the  annual  meeting. 

The  existence  of  both  associations  is  of  distinct  benefit 
to  their  members,  and  to  the  trade  in  general.  The  estab- 
lishment of  standard  trade  customs  throughout  the  country 
facilitates  the  conduct  of  business  upon  an  equitable  basis. 
Copies  of  these  rules  are  to  be  found  in  the  price  list  of  most 
paper  jobbers,  and  as  they  are  subject  to  occasional  changes 
it  seems  inadvisable  to  reprint  them  here. 

A  third  organization  known  as  the  Paper  Makers  Adver- 
tising Club,  consisting  of  15  Mills,  was  organized  in  1914. 
Its  purpose  is  to  develop  the  growth  of  printing  by  dissemi- 
nating information  about  the  purpose  and  uses  and  planning 
of  "direct-by-mail"  advertising.  Its  membership  is  open  to 
any  paper  mill  which  sells  its  product  in  whole  or  in  part 
under  its  own  brands. 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN 

IMPORTANCE  OF  A  KNOWLEDGE  OF  PRINTING 

THE  study  of  printing  should  be  more  general  in  all 
our  schools — but  not  as  it  is  taught  so  often — by 
teachers  incompetent  to  glimpse  and  grasp  its  widest 
possibilities — to  make  it  live  and  thrill  with  all  its  latent 
power. 

If  its  mechanical  aspects  are  over  emphasized  it  must  fail 
to  appeal  to  intellectual  scholars,  since  it  cannot  sufficiently 
stir  their  imaginations  to  command  interest. 

The  printing  and  publishing  industry  stands  among  the 
six  largest  from  the  point  of  view  of  annual  value  in  dollars — 
in  this  country — and  has,  of  course,  boundless  possibilities 
for  good  and  evil.  Nothing  is  more  essential  to  civilization 
intellectually  or  commercially,  than  printing. 

The  allied  industries  are  also  relatively  important.  The 
United  States  produces  more  paper  than  any  other  five 
nations  combined  and  hence  offers  countless  opportunities 
for  a  good  livlihood  in  this  line. 

Six  hundred  million  dollars  and  more  are  annually 
expended  for  advertising  in  the  United  States  and  adver- 
tising invariably  involves  printing  of  some  sort. 

Aside  from  the  positions  that  require  a  knowledge  of 
printing  more  or  less  complete,  such  as  proofreading,  pub- 
lishing, librarians'  work,  etc.,  there  are  jobs  connected  with 
the  paper  industry  where  this  knowledge,  which  as  a  matter 
of  fact  is  rarely  found,  would  prove  of  great  advantage. 

It  is  evident,  moreover,  that  some  practical  knowledge  of 
printing  may  prove  useful  if  not  essential  for  practically  all 
men  who  engage  in  commerce  or  manufacturing.  They  are 
all  buyers  of  printing,  and  it  is  a  difficult  commodity  to 
purchase  intelligently. 

For  authors  or  editors  a  knowledge  of  typesetting  is  very 
valuable.  They  should  know  the  mechanics  of  it,  for 
"author's  corrections"  are  the  bugaboo  of  most  printers  and 

(97) 


98  IMPORTANCE  OF  A  KNOWLEDGE  OF  PRINTING 

the  cause  of  much  unnecessary  expense  and  misunderstand- 
ing about  the  cost  of  printing,  because  the  inexperienced 
author  seldom  realizes  that  the  change  of  a  word  may  involve 
the  resetting  of  an  entire  paragraph. 

When  we  have  agreed  that  a  grounding  in  printing  is 
desirable  for  prospective  authors  and  business  men,  we  have 
included  a  high  proportion  of  our  population.  Even  pro- 
fessional men  will  find  it  beneficial,  though  possibly  not  in 
porportion  to  the  time  required  for  its  mastery. 

From  a  purely  educational  point  of  view,  I  can  empha- 
tically state  from  personal  experience,  that  nothing  ever 
helped  me  more  in  acquiring  concentration  of  mind  than 
typesetting. 

There  is  a  wholesome  discipline  in  the  performances 
involved  in  products  of  the  press.  Nor  should  the  aesthetic 
aspect  be  ignored.  It  seems  a  pity  that  cultured  persons 
should  be  so  generally  ignorant  of  what  constitutes  good 
printing. 

The  same  people  who  would  not  wish  to  admit  that  they 
could  not  recognize  a  Sheraton  chair,  or  a  Rubens  painting, 
have  no  sense  of  omission  from  their  educations  because  of 
their  inability  intelligently  to  appreciate  a  beautiful  example 
of  printing,  as  mere  printing.  A  collection  of  well-printed 
books  is  an  indulgence  within  the  reach  of  modest  incomes 
and  the  source  of  much  satisfaction. 

Considering  that  Printing  is  the  "Art  preservative  of  all 
arts"  does  it  not  seem  like  a  subject  which  should  be  gen- 
erally touched  upon,  at  least  collaterally,  in  every  institution 
of  higher  education? 

To  sum  up  a  bit:  Printing  is  an  industry  of  basic  impor- 
tance to  civilization.  It  means,  therefore,  the  livlihood 
directly  or  indirectly  of  many  persons.  The  opportunities 
open  to  young  men  well  equipped  with  a  knowledge  of 
printing  are  numerous,  and  the  young  man  so  prepared  has 
an  advantage  over  his  competitors. 

So  much  for  the  commercial  aspect. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  A  KNOWLEDGE  OF  PRINTING  99 

Aesthetically,  printing  has  risen  in  the  past,  and  does 
still,  occasionally  rise  to  high  levels.  Its  encouragement  as 
an  art  should  come  from  the  better  educated  people,  as  well 
as  from  the  hard  headed  business  men,  who,  by  producing 
beautiful  catalogs,  have  actually  done  much  to  encourage 
and  bring  in  an  age  of  better  printing. 

Educationally,  I  would  like  my  own  children  to  undergo 
this  training  which  possesses  so  much  that  is  fascinating, 
but  is  at  once  exacting  and  disciplinary  to  the  mind,  the  eye 
and  the  hand. 

There  is  no  escape  from  the  consequences  of  one's  work. 
It  remains  proved  in  black  and  white,  or  even  in  many 
colors,  as  a  credit  or  otherwise  to  one's  imagination,  concep- 
tion and  workmanship.  It  is  my  conviction  that  there  are 
large  educational  advantages  in  the  study  of  Printing  if  it 
be  taught  by  trained  enthusiasts  in  a  way  to  make  it  live 
and  vibrate  with  all  its  far-reaching  and  inexhaustible  power. 


INDEX 


Advertising 93 

Agalite 39 

American  Paper  &  Pulp  Assn ...  95 

Antique 55 

Atmospheric  Effects 64 


21 

Barium  Sulphate 39 

Barratt,  Thomas,  Water  Mark- 
ing    7 

Baskerville — first  wove  paper .  .  4 

Bloting 41 

Blanks 52 

Bleaching 28 

Bleaching  Powder,  discovery  of  10 

Boxboard 52 

Breast-roll 46 

Bristol  boards 52 

Broom  corn 20 

Brueckmann,  Dr 7 

Bureau  of  Chemistry . .  19 

Bureau  of  Plant  Industry 19 

Burgess  and  Watt 8 

Bursting  strength 73 

Calender  defects 78 

Calenders,  sheet 55,  56 

Calenders,  super 55,  56 

Canson,  M.  inventor  of  suction 

boxes 7 

Card  board 5,  6,  71 

Casein 81 

Chapman  neutralizer 87 

Chemical  Texts 73,  74 

China  Clay 39 

Coated  Papers 56,  58,  81 

Color,  of  Paper 67,  68 

Color 79 

Combining 56 

Corn  Stalks 19 

Cotton  hull  fibre 20 

Coucher-man 44 

Couch  roll 46,  47 


Cover  papers 60 

Crompton  T.  B.,  inventor 7 

Crop  plants 18 

Cylinder  Machine 7,47  52 

Dandy  Roll 7  47 

Deckle  Straps . .  47 

Deckle  Edges 47 

De  Vinne 5 

Dickinson,  Co 52 

Dickinson,  John 7 

Didot,  Francois 6 

Distribution  of  Paper 89 

Doctor 49 

Donken,  Bryan 6 

Dryers,  invention  of 6 

Electricity,  Static 86,  87, 88 

Ekman 8 

Embossing 55 

Esparto 36 

Fiber  Characteristics 44 

Fillers 39 

Finish 68,  76,  77 

Finishing 54 

Flax  Straw 21 

Flow  Box 47 

Folding  Endurance 74 

Forest  Products  Laboratory ...  18 

Formation 68 

Fourdrinier,  Henry  and  Sealy .  .  6 
Fourdrinier  Machine ......     43,  46 

Fry 8 

Grifiin,  Martin  L 21,  22 

Ground  Wood . 29, 31 

Guard-board 49 

Gummed  Papers 59 

Glassine  Paper 59 

Grain  of  Paper 63,  64,  83, 84 

Hand  Process 43 

Harper  Machine 52 

Head  Box . .  46 


(101) 


102 


INDEX 


Hertzberg's  Table 65 

Hinchman,  David 4 

Holland  Beating  Engine 4 

Impurities  in  Paper 40 

Inks 82 

Jordan  Engine 42 


Keller 8 

Koops,  Matthias 8 

Laid  Paper 54 

Make  Ready 82 

Merchandising 92,  94 

Mill  Brands 93 

Mitscherlich .  / 34 

Moisture  in  Paper 84,  85 

Murray,  John 1 

National  Paper  Trade  Assn .     89,  95 
Opacity 70 

Packing 80 

Paper  Making,  Origin  of 1 

Papyrus 1 

Paper  Maker's  Advertising  Club  96 

Paper  Trade  Associations 96 

Platers 55 

Press  Rolls 47 

Printers'  Responsibility 82 

Rag  Stock,  Preparation  of .  .     26,  27 

Reamur 7 

Reels 47 

Register 84 

Richmond  Paper  Co 8 

Rittenhouse,  William 4 

Robert,  Louis 6 

Routledge 8 

Samarkand,  Conquest  of 2 

Sand  Settler 42 

Save-all 46,  47 

Schaeffers,  Jacob  Christian ....       7 


Screens 42 

Seasoning 85 

Sizing  Materials 39,  70 

Slices 47 

Slitters 48 

Stamper 4 

Statistics  of  Manufacture 

12, 13, 14, 15 

Suction  Boxes 8 

Soda  Pulp 32,34 

Strawboard 52 

Straw  Pulp 36 

Sulphate  Pulp 34 

Sulphite  Pulp 34 

Sulphate  of  Lime 39 

Super-Calendering 55,  56 

Surface  Sizing 54 

Starch 39,  81 

Talc 39 

Tate,  John 3 

Tennant 10 

Tensile  Strength 73,  74 

Testing,    Paper 

70,71,72,73,74 

Tilghman,  Benjamin  C 8,  11 

Trade  Customs .  .  78 


Vatman 


43 


Waste  Papers 16     7,36 

Watermarks 49 

Water  Finish 55 

Watt  and  Burgess 8 

Waxed  Papers 59 

Wet  Machine 29 

Whatman,  James 3 

Wheelwright,  Charles  S 8 

Wilks,  John 7 

Wire 46 

Wood  Pulps 28,  32 

Wood  Pulp  Importations 15 

Wove  Paper 54 

Yankee  Machine ...                ...  54 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT, 

This  bookis  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


APR131984     5 


General  Library 
Uoivengy^glifornl. 


